Lithogyalideopsis
Type : Lithogyalideopsis poeltii (Vězda) Lücking, Sérus. & Vězda [Gyalideopsis poeltii Vězda]
Description : Thallus crustose, thin, filmy, smooth or verrucose, pale glaucous-green, delimited by a pale-grey or white prothallus. Hyphophores present, Aulaxina -type, setose, black, producing palmate, diahyphal bunches connected to apex of stipe by unbranched cords of agglutinated hyphae. Photobiont green, ? Trebouxia. Ascomata apothecia, orbicular, red-brown to black, ±pellucid when wet, with a persistent, often slightly raised proper margin; thalline margin absent. Proper exciple and hymenium composed of a continuous, loose network of anastomosing paraphysoids in a common, gelatinous matrix. Asci cylindrical–clavate to ovate, apices thickened, 2- to 8-spored. Ascospores colourless, transversely septate to muriform. Conidiomata unknown.
Lithogyalideopsis, a recently described segregate of Gyalideopsis (q.v.), is a genus of saxicolous species included in the family Gomphillaceae (Lücking et al. 2005: 165). It differs from Gyalideopsis s. str., in the production of Aulaxina -type hyphophores, that are setose, black, and that produce palmate diahyphal bunches, i.e. the diahyphae comprise 3–5 individual, much branched bunches that are connected to the apex of the stipe by a rather thick, unbranched hyphal cord of agglutinated hyphae (Lücking et al. 2005, 2006). One species is known from New Zealand (Vězda & Malcolm 1997).
