Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Verrucaria luridella Nyl., Mém. Soc. Acad. Maine et Loire 4: 41 (1858).

Description : Thallus thin, ochraceous, yellowish grey, grey or grey-brown, matt to slightly glossy, membranous-rimose to rimose-areolate. Perithecia 0.2–0.6 mm diam. Ascospores 4–6–8 per ascus, colourless, ellipsoidal to elongate-ellipsoidal, muriform with 7–9 transverse and 3–4 vertical septa, 35–50 × 13–20 μm.

S: Canterbury (Timaru). On Dashing Rocks near Timaru (Mayrhofer 1987: 47). Still very poorly known and collected in New Zealand. Known from tropical and subtropical regions such as Bolivia, Brazil, Dominica, Trinidad, Algeria, South Africa, Socotra and Queensland (Mayrhofer 1987; Mayrhofer & McCarthy 1991; McCarthy 2003c, 2006).

Pantropical

Illustrations : Mayrhofer (1987: 49, fig. 17; 105, figs 38–39); Mayrhofer & McCarthy (1991: 336, fig. 4); Malcolm & Malcolm (2000: 109).

Thelenella luridella is characterised by: the saxicolous habit; the areolate thallus and the relatively large ascospores, 35–50 × 13–20 μm.