Mazosia phyllosema
≡Platygrapha phyllosema Nyl., Bull. Soc. linn. Normandie, sér. 2, 7: 171 (1873).
Description : Thallus foliicolous, rounded, margins somewhat irregular, to 15 mm diam., smooth, grey to pale brownish grey or greenish grey, slightly glossy. Apothecia prominent, immersed, (0.1–)0.3–0.6(–0.8) mm diam.; disc plane 0.1–0.4 mm diam., black to dark-grey, epruinose; margins concolorous with thallus or paler or darker, smooth, to 0.1 mm wide. Epithecium colourless to brownish, 10–15 μm thick. Hymenium colourless, 50–70 μm tall. Hypothecium colourless to pale-brown, 5–10 μm thick. Paraphysoids branched and anastomosing, c. 1 μm thick. Asci clavate, 45–65 × 10–14 μm. Ascospores 3-septate, fusiform, microcephalic, one of the median cells distinctly larger than the others, apices acute or obtuse, not constricted at septa, 15–26 × 4–5 μm. Pycnidia and conidia as for M. melanophthalma, but macroconidia usually shorter (4–6 μm).
N: Auckland (Waitakere Ra.) on Astelia leaves (Bartlett 1988: 15). S: Nelson (Karamea, Lewis Pass), Marlborough (W.M. Malcolm, pers. comm.). Widely distributed in all tropical regions (Santesson 1952; Kalb & Vězda 1988a; Santesson & Tibell 1988; Lücking 1992, 1996a; Farkas & Sipman 1997; Lücking & Kalb 2001; Aptroot 2002e; Lücking et al. 2003; Farkas 2004) and recently recorded also from Tasmania (McCarthy et al. 2001; McCarthy 2003c, 2006; Rønhede et al. 2003).
Pantropical
Illustrations : Santesson (1952: 124, fig. 13); Lücking (1992: 35, fig. 7D; 37, fig. 8C); Lumbsch et al. (2001: 44); Malcolm & Malcolm (2001: 39).
Mazosia phyllosema is characterised by: the foliicolous habit; the smooth thallus; and 3-septate ascospores, 15–26 × 4–5 μm.
