Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : * Lichenodiplis lecanorae (Vouaux) Dyko & D.Hawksw. [= * Diplodina lecanorae Vouaux]

Description : Lichenicolous, immersed in apothecia of host. Conidiomata pycnidia, arising singly, scattered, immersed but becoming erumpent, dark-brown; walls of thick-walled pseudoparenchymatous cells forming a textura angularis, not distinctly ostiolate but opening by a disintegration of a portion of the upper wall. Conidiophores absent. Conidiogenous cells lining the whole of the pycnidial cavity, cylindrical to lageniform, percurrently proliferating, hyaline to pale-brown, discrete. Conidia holoblastic, cylindrical to obovate, pale- to dark-brown, smooth-walled, 1-euseptate, apex obtuse and base truncate.

Lichenodiplis, included in the AnamorphicAscomycota (Lawrey & Diederich 2003), is a genus of nine species (Diederich 2004g), all of which are lichenicolous fungi (Hawksworth & Dyko 1979; Hawksworth 1981, 2003; Berger & Diederich 1996; Diederich 2003: 57–62, 2004g). One species is known in New Zealand where it occurs widely on the apothecial discs of species of Caloplaca and Lecanora.