Flora of New Zealand Series

Type : * Dactylospora parasitica (Flörke) Zopf [= * Dactylospora floerkei Körb.]

Description : Lichenicolous, rarely hepaticolous, fungicolous or corticolous. Ascomata apothecia, ±superficial, sometimes short-pedicellate, black, the wall of dark-brown to blackish pseudoparenchymatous tissue, sometimes poorly developed. Hypothecium colourless to dark-brown. Hymenium colourless or pale brownish. Epithecium pale- to dark-brown. Hamathecium of sparsely branched, narrow paraphyses 1–2 μm thick, the apices swollen and pigmented. Asci cylindrical-clavate, of Dactylospora -type (Hafellner & Bellemère 1982), persistent, thick-walled, especially at the apex, dehiscence non-fissitunicate, with an outer I+ gelatinised layer, without a well-developed apical cap or ocular chamber, 4–8-spored or polysporous. Ascospores colourless, pale-brown, red-brown to dark-brown, 1-septate, to 3–5–7-septate or submuriform, occasionally ornamented.

Anamorph : unknown.

Dactylospora is a cosmopolitan genus of c. 50 species worldwide (Kirk et al. 2001; Sarrión et al. 2002; Hafellner 2004b; Ihlen et al. 2004a), included in the family Dactylosporaceae (Bellemère & Hafellner 1982; Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005). Most taxa are lichenicolous (commensalistic on lichens), or on liverworts or saprophytic on wood (Hafellner 1979, 1985b; Bellemère & Hafellner 1982; Döbbeler & Triebel 1985; Triebel 1989; Alstrup & Hawksworth 1990; Hawksworth et al. 1995; Etayo 2002; Ihlen et al. 2004a; Santesson et al. 2004). Marine taxa are discussed by Kohlmeyer & Volkmann-Kohlmeyer (1998). A key to the 20 species known from Scandinavia is given in Ihlen at al. (2004a). Five species are so far known from New Zealand though, as with the majority of lichenicolous taxa, the genus is still very poorly known and collected here.