Diploschistes cervinus Zahlbr.
Lectotype: New Zealand, Otago, Mt Maungatua, summit rocks, c. 800 m. J.S. Thomson ZA 617, (T1369), CHR 106157!
Thallus spreading, in irregular patches 2-6 cm diam., closely attached, 1-8 mm thick, rough, sordid yellow-brown or olivaceous, verrucose, verrucae convex, bullate, congested, 0.5-1 mm diam., not surrounded by prothallus, saxicolous. Apothecia ± scattered, deeply sessile, rounded, constricted at base, 0.2-1.5 mm diam., disc immersed, concave, black, matt, epruinose, thalline margin thick, concolorous with thallus, entire, crenulate, puckered to warted-globose, inflexed, surrounding disc as a thin, whitish, annular ring. Epithecium pale grey, granular, 18 µm thick. Hymenium brownish above, 180-220 µm tall. Hypothecium colourless, 30-40 µm thick. Paraphyses filiform, dense, straight interwoven, simple, eseptate, not swollen at apices. Asci oblong-clavate, apices rounded , 8-spored. Ascospores uni- or rarely biseriate, dark brown, broadly ovoid or broad ellipsoid, straight, muriform 24-35 × 14-16 µm. Chemistry: Thallus K-, C-, KC+ red.
S: Otago. Alpine or subalpine rocks.
Endemic
Differs from D. scruposus in the rather smaller spores, a different thallus chemistry and in epruinose apothecial discs.
