Flora of New Zealand Series

≡*Tichothecium macrosporum Arnold, Verhandl. Zool.-bot. Ges. Wien 18: 960 (1868).

Description : Lichenicolous. Perithecia dispersed, ±immersed black, 0.1–0.25 mm diam. Asci cylindrical to clavate (40–)50–65(–75) × 12–20(–25) μm. Ascospores ellipsoidal, grey-brown to pale-brown, (12.5–)13–21 × (4.5–)5–8(–8.5) μm.

S: Canterbury (Mt Peel). On thalli of Rhizocarpon geographicum. First collected in New Zealand by Hannes Hertel (Triebel 1989: 98). A widespread species known from Europe, Scandinavia, Greenland, Canary Is, Morocco, Turkey, Russia and North America (Triebel 1989 – as Endococcus perpusillus pr. p.; Triebel et al. 1991 – as E. perpusillus  pr. p.; Hafellner et al. 2002; Kainz & Triebel 2004; Santesson et al. 2004).

Cosmopolitan

Hosts : Species of Dimelaena, Lecidella, Miriquidica, Porpidia, Protoblastenia and Rhizocarpon (Triebel 1989; Triebel et al. 1991; Cole & Hawksworth 2001; Hafellner et al. 2002).

* Endococcus macrosporus is characterised by: the lichenicolous habit; its thin-walled, narrow ascospores, 12.5–21 × 4.5–8.5 μm, and is distinguished from E. rugulosus by these ascospore characters as well as a different host spectrum.