Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : Fellhanera fuscatula (Müll.Arg.) Vězda [=Bacidia fuscatula (Müll.Arg.) Zahlbr.]

Description : Thallus crustose. Photobiont green Chlorococcaceae. Ascomata apothecia, sessile, biatorine with a proper margin. Exciple paraplectenchymatous. Hamathecium of paraphyses, 0.8–1.5 μm diam., flexuous, simple or branched, anastomosing, apices slightly thickened. Hypothecium and hymenium colourless I+ blue. Asci I+ blue, with an amyloid tholus of Byssoloma -type (Hafellner 1984: 316. fig. 61). Ascospores 8 per ascus, colourless, 1–3-septate to submuriform, slightly constricted at septa, Bilimbia -type. Conidiomata pycnidia, sessile, verruciform. Conidia simple, pyriform.

Fellhanera [the name is an anagram of Hafellner, and honours the Austrian lichenologist Josef Hafellner], accommodated in the family Pilocarpaceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005), was segregated from Bacidia as an independent genus (Vězda 1986) characterised by biatorine apothecia having a paraplectenchymatous excipulum; asci of Byssoloma -type; Bilimbia -type ascospores; and bacillar or pyriform conidia (Sérusiaux 1996; Lücking 1992, 1997c; Matzer 1996; Ferraro & Lücking 1999). Most species are foliicolous, with corticolous and saxicolous habits being much less common in the genus (Lücking 1992, 1997c; Matzer 1996; Aptroot et al. 1998; Sparrius & Aptroot 2000; Lücking et al. 2001a). Fellhanera and Badimiella are closely related and are separated mainly on the basis of slightly different paraphyses, amyloid reactions of their asci, apothecial size and presence or absence of campylidia (Lücking et al. 1994). In his monograph on foliicolous lichens, Santesson (1952) discussed 10 taxa in the genera Catillaria, Bacidia and Lopadium while Vězda (1986: 214–215) made 19 new combinations into Fellhanera from Bacidia, Bilimbia, Catillaria and Lecidea, and Lücking (1992) discusses 16 taxa (together with a key) from Costa Rica. Recently, Sérusiaux (1996) provided a world key to 33 species; Farkas & Sipman (1997) list 32 taxa and Lücking (1997c) discusses 25 species from Costa Rica of which 10 are new taxa. Aptroot et al. (1998) described a new sorediate species from trees and shrubs in Western Europe; Ferraro & Lücking (1999) two additional new taxa from South America, and Sérusiaux et al. (2001) a new species from Europe. A key to species of Fellhanera and Fellhaneropsis occurring in Western Europe is given in Sparrius & Aptroot (2000), and Lücking & Santesson (2001: 114–115) provide a key to all known species. The chemistry of Fellhanera was studied by Tønsberg (1992a), Lücking et al. (1994) and Spier et al. (2002). In general, species with bluish thalli have secondary compounds, whilst taxa with greenish thalli do not. At present 56 species of Fellhanera are known worldwide (Lücking 1997c; Sparrius & Aptroot 2000; Lücking & Santesson 2001; Lücking et al. 2001a, 2001b, Sérusiaux et al. 2001; Van den Boom 2004) of which two are present in New Zealand.

Important features for species determination in Fellhanera are: thallus outline; surface structure and chemistry; apothecial size and colour; excipulum cell size and presence of crystals; coloure of epithecium, hypothecium and apothecial base; and ascospore size and septation (Sérusiaux 1996; Lücking 1997c; Ferraro & Lücking 1999).