Strangospora Körb.
Type : Strangospora pinicola (A.Massal.) Körb. [=Sarcogyne pinicola A.Massal.]
Description : Thallus crustose, generally poorly developed, prothallus absent. Photobiont green, chlorococcoid. Ascomata apothecia, biatorine, translucent when moist, convex, pale-yellow to brown-black, rarely orange-pruinose. Exciple thin to obsolete, to persistent, of parallel, brownish, ochraceous or hyaline hyphae. Hymenium variously coloured, I+ deep-blue. Hypothecium hyaline to pale yellow-grey, often nubilated. Hamathecium of paraphyses, branched and anastomosing in a gelatinous matrix, apices free, unbranched, not swollen. Asci clavate, Lecanora -type, multi-spored, with a thick, I+ blue wall especially at apex, without a gelatinous outer layer. Ascospores globose, simple, thin-walled, colourless. Conidiomata pycnidia, small, globose, brownish. Conidia simple, colourless, ellipsoidal.
Strangospora comprises 10 species (Kirk et al. 2001), formerly treated as Biatorella (Magnusson 1935, 1936; Harris et al. 1988: 26–27), and is included in the family Lecanoraceae (Eriksson et al. 2004; Pennycook & Galloway 2004; Eriksson 2005). The two genera differ mainly in the structure of the asci. A comparison of the diagnostic characters of some accepted genera (Biatorella, Biatoridium, Maronella, Piccolia and Strangospora) of biatorelloid Lecanorales, based on the character states of the type species of the genera, is given in Hafellner (2004e: 88). One species is known from New Zealand, but the genus is very poorly collected and understood here.
