Flora of New Zealand Series

Thallus crustose, effuse, ecorticate, rarely with effigurate margins, without a lower cortex, without soredia or isidia. Medulla I-. Corticolous, saxicolous or foliicolous. Photobiont green, Trebouxia and Myrmecia, mostly in small groups dispersed throughout thallus. Apothecia lecideine, solitary or clustered, sessile or subinnate, small, 0.3-1.5 mm diam., matt or glossy, rarely pruinose, plane to moderately or strongly convex, young fruits concave with flat disc and swollen margins, margins persistent or disappearing with age. Epithecium of much thickened and branching paraphyses tips, colourless to black. Hymenium colourless 40-60 µm tall, rarely lower (30 µm) or taller (75 µm). Paraphyses simple, much branched in upper part, apical cells swollen, to 8 µm diam., always pigmented, pigment in apical cap. Asci subcylindrical or Lecanora -type with thickened walls, often with an I+ blue tholus. Ascospores 1-septate, oblong-ellipsoid, oval or fabiform with rounded or pointed ends, colourless, 8 per ascus.

Catillaria is a large genus of mainly tropical lichens included in the family Lecideaceae. Foliicolous taxa are discussed by Santesson [ Symb. bot. upsal. 12: 428-435 (1952)], who also gives much information on the genus [see also Kilias Herzogia 5: 209-448 (1981)] Catillaria, in present treatments, seems a heterogeneous assemblage of taxa, and many species now described in it will doubtless be placed elsewhere when its true relationships are correctly established. It is probable that Biatorina Massal., and possibly other genera as well, will accommodate the complex of taxa with lecideine apothecia and 1-septate spores now included in Catillaria. The New Zealand taxa are still much undercollected and poorly understood. At least two main groups seem to be represented; one with immarginate apothecia and narrow, subfusiform spores, as in C. kelica; the other, possibly referable to Catinaria, having fruits with prominent and persistent margins and with wider spores as in C. melanotropa and C. corroborans. In this account 11 species (ten corticolous and one foliicolous) are discussed, but the genus is still very much in need of collection and study in New Zealand.