Flora of New Zealand Series

≡*Lecidea vermicularia Linds., Trans. Roy. Soc., Edin. 22: 143 (1859).[For additional synonymy see Hawksworth (1979a: 289; 1985a: 172) and Hafellner (1979: 219–220).

Description : Lichenicolous on surface of host. Perithecia scattered, black, minute, punctiform, spherical to applanate, 80–110(–120) μm diam. Perithecial cavity with sparse, knobbly, branched cellular pseudoparaphyses, 1.5–2.5 μm thick. Asci irregularly obovoid-clavate, 8-spored, 60–66 × 20–25 μm, I−. Ascospores oblong–ovoid to ellipsoidal, brown, 1-septate, 14–18(–21) × 7–9 μm, walls verruculose.

S: Nelson (Tarndale), Otago (Rock & Pillar Ra., Blue Mts). First collected by Dr Andrew Sinclair (Lindsay 1866c: 441). Known also from the Falkland Is, Switzerland and Norway (Lindsay 1859, 1866c; Vouaux 1913a: 59; Hafellner 1979: 220; Hawksworth 1985a: 172; Ihlen 1995: 20).

Cosmopolitan

Host : Thamnolia vermicularis.

Illustrations : Lindsay (1859: pl. V, figs 19, 24, 25 – as Lecidea vermicularia); Hawksworth & Diederich (1988: 296, fig. 1J).

* Polycoccum vermicularium is characterised by: the lichenicolous habit (Thamnolia vermicularis as host); scattered, minute perithecia; and oblong–ovoid to ellipsoidal, brown, 1-septate, ascospores, 14–18 (–21) × 7–9 μm, walls verruculose. Lauder Lindsay wrote of it: "In New Zealand specimens the parasite exists only in a degenerate or abortive state. It occurs as very minute microscopic, black, punctiform, immersed perithecia, which sometimes become elongated or variously difform; under moisture assuming a brown tint and sub-corneous aspect. The envelope or wall of the conceptacle consists of brown, minute, closely aggregated cells… but it contains no spores. The plant is, however, so similar otherwise to the parasite, which occurs abundantly in a fertile or normal state on the same Thamnolia, in the Falkland Islands, that I have little difficulty as to its identification" (Lindsay 1866c: 441).