Flora of New Zealand Series

≡*Microthelia perrugosaria Linds., Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb. 24: 437 (1866).

≡*Didymosphaeria perrugosaria (Linds.) Sacc. & Trotter, Syll. Fung. 22: 176 (1913).

Holotype: New Zealand. Otago, Dunedin. On the top of Kaikorai Hill (1092 feet), x.1861, W.L. Lindsay – E

Description : Perithecia papillate, most commonly semi-immersed in apothecia of host, becoming erumpent, visible as minute, shining coal-black dots, 75–100 μm diam. Hamathecial filaments 1.5–2.5 μm wide. Asci elongate–clavate, c. 60 × 15 μm, 8-spored. Ascospores distichously arranged, broadly ellipsoidal, 1(–3)-septate, cells ±equal in size, not or scarcely constricted at the septum, tending to taper towards the rounded ends, olivaceous to almost black, ±smooth-walled, 10–12(–13.2) × 3.5–5.5(–6) μm.

S: Westland (Fox Glacier, Paringa River), Otago (Dunedin). Widespread on several species of Placopsis. Probably also in southern South America.

?Austral

Hosts : Placopsis illita, P. perrugosa, P. salazina. Lindsay (1866c: 437) notes of the species "...The parasite is best seen by moistening the apothecia of the Placopsis. The disc or epithecium is naturally of a dark or dull port-wine red or crimson colour. Under moisture this colour becomes lighter, the epithecium swells and becomes waxy, and the black punctiform parasitic perithecia then become prominent. They occur in considerable numbers on a single apothecium; generally discrete or isolated; sometimes confluent. The perithecium is found, on careful examination, to be, in its upper half, a papilla seated on the epithecium of the Placopsis, while the lower half is immersed in its tissues. Its walls are formed of dark-brown, small, irregularly formed, and densely aggregated cells...".

Illustrations : Lindsay (1866c: pl. XXX, figs 23–28 – as Microthelia perrugosaria).

* Phaeospora perrugosaria is characterised by: the lichenicolous habit; the minute, papillate, glossy, coal-black apothecia present on the apothecial discs of the host; and the olivaceous to black, 1(–3)-septate, smooth-walled ascospores, 10–12(–13.2) × 3.5–5.5(–6) μm. Hawksworth (1985a: 159–160) and Hawksworth & Diederich (1988: 305) placed this species in synonymy with * Polycoccum squamarioides (Mudd) Arnold (q.v.), but it differs from that species in the shorter ascospores.