Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : * Lichenochora thallina (Cooke) Hafellner (= * Sphaerella thallina Cooke)

Description : Lichenicolous, forming galls on fruiting bodies of host. Ascomata perithecia, crowded, puriform, well-developed in immersed galls, 150–300 μm diam., opening to the surface by an ostiole. Perithecial wall brownish, darker in region of ostiole. Periphyses present. Hamathecium distinct, of thick-walled hyphae. Asci functionally unitunicate, very thin-walled, cylindrical to clavate, without an apical apparatus, 4–8-spored, 50–100 × 12–15 μm. Ascospores 1-septate, generally colourless, rarely brownish, both cells equal and apices rounded. All parts of the ascocarp inspersed with numerous oil bodies.

Lichenochora is a genus of c. 24 species of lichenicolous fungi (Hafellner & Navarro-Rosinés 2004), included in the family Phyllachoraceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004) occurring as parasites of genera in the Teloschistaceae (Caloplaca, Fulgensia), and on Aspicilia, Collema, Lecidella, Menegazzia and Squamarina (Hafellner 1989b; Triebel et al. 1991; Aptroot et al. 1997; Navarro-Rosinés et al. 1998a, 1998b; Calatayud et al. 2000; Hoffmann & Hafellner 2000; Navarro-Rosinés & Etayo 2001; Hafellner & Navarro-Rosinés 2004). One species is tentatively recorded from Caloplaca in New Zealand (Navarro-Rosinés & Etayo 2001: 157).