Agonimia Zahlbr.
Thallus crustose, thin or lacking, to minutely squamulose, microphylline, scattered to ± contiguous, green to olivaceous or brownish, cortex pseudoparenchymatous. Photobiont green, Protococcus. Perithecia emergent, black or brownish, scattered among squamules, spherical to subpyriform, matt or slightly shining, smooth, or slightly roughened, wall 3-layered, an outer pseudoparenchymatous pigmented zone merging into a similar non-pigmented zone on inner side of which a ± developed layer of conglutinate, unbranched hyphae projects downwards towards centre of perithecium. Paraphyses absent. Asci clavate, ellipsoid or ovoid, thin-walled, 2- or 8-spored. Ascospores colourless, muriform.
Agonimia, included in the family Verrucariaceae contains 3 described species. The genus is not well differentiated from Polyblastia. European species are discussed by Coppins and James [Lichenologist 10: 181-185 (1978)] and Poelt and Vézda [Bestimmungsschl. eur. Flecht. Erg. II: 107-109 (1981)]. An undescribed species first collected by P.W. James (September 1981) is known from Quercus bark in an exotic plantation in Hanmer State Forest (Canterbury).
