Brigantiaea fuscolutea
≡Lichen fuscoluteus Dicks., Fasc. pl. crypt. Br. 2: 18 (1790).
Descriptions : Flora (1985: 41); Hafellner (1997: 48).
N: Gisborne (Mt Hikurangi). S: Nelson (Fenella Hut Cobb Valley, Dun Saddle) Canterbury (Craigieburn Ra.), Otago (Old Woman Ra., Old Man Ra.), Southland (Longwood Ra.). St: In subalpine grasslands and fellfield where it encrusts bryophytes, plant detritus or occasionally bare soil. Known also from Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Faeroes, Jan Mayen, Iceland, North and South America, Asia and South Georgia (Vainio 1922: 275–276; Hafellner 1997: 50).
Bipolar
Illustrations : Knight (1875a: pl. XXIII, fig. 6 – as Lecidea fuscolutea); Foucard (1990: fig. 57); Hafellner (1997: 55, fig. 7C, D); Malcolm & Malcolm (2000: 126).
Brigantiaea fuscolutea may be confused with sterile Tetramelas confusus (q.v.) that has closely similar papillate, white spreading encrusting thalli, but when fertile, the two taxa that are often sympatric (Galloway et al. 1998) are readily separable, as T. confusus has shiny coal-black apothecia. B. fuscolutea is easily recognised by its pale whitish encrusting thallus and the mustard-yellow, scattered, large, subpedicellate apothecia which often have a dense covering of anthraquinone crystals on the margins and disc. Specimens of B. fuscolutea are sometimes parasitised by the lichenicolous fungus * Dactylospora frigida (q.v.) (Hafellner 1985b).
