Megaspora rimisorediata (Pertusariales, Megasporaceae), a new sorediate species from Iran and its affinities with Aspicilia sensu lato

Abstract

The new species Megaspora rimisorediata Valadbeigi & A. Nordin is described from Iran, where it mainly grows on tree bark but also on calciferous rocks and mosses. It is characterized by a pale ochraceous to bluish grey, cracked and sorediate thallus, very rarely producing ascomata. It appears to be rather commonly distributed in Iran. Its close affinity with Megaspora verrucosa is illustrated in a graph resulting from a phylogenetic network analysis of nuclear rDNA ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 sequences from specimens representing the different genera of Megasporaceae.

New members of the Megasporaceae (Pertusariales, lichen-forming Ascomycota): Megaspora iranica spec. nova and Oxneriaria gen. nova

“…The recently described Megaspora rimisorediata Valadbeigi et A. Nordin, characterised by a pale ochraceous to bluish grey, cracked and sorediate, very rarely fertile thallus, is found to be rather commonly distributed in Iran (Valadbeigi et al 2011). This species was also recently recorded from Armenia and China based on several collections (Gasparyan andSipman 2013, Kondratyuk et al 2016a) and here for the first time recorded from Europe.…”

“…Note: Our measurements of fertile specimens from China, Iran (see Kondratyuk et al 2016a) and Ukraine show that other characters (thallus, cortical layer, hymenium, etc.) of Megaspora rimisorediata have wider range of variation than it was mentioned in original description (Valadbeigi et al 2011) (see also below), but width of ascospores and thickness of ascospore wall are more or less stable characters.…”

“…3). As far from our study data on some characters of Megaspora rimisorediata are rather wider than those of original description of Valadbeigi et al (2011), we provide description of this taxon based on our revision of Iranian, Chinese and Ukrainian specimens.…”

“…Taxonomic notes: Megaspora iranica is similar to M. rimisorediata, known from scattered localities in Eurasia (Armenia, China, Iran and Ukraine), but differs in having larger thallus (5-10 cm vs. to 4 cm across), in having smaller soredia ((30-)37.5-50 μm diam. vs. 50-70 μm diam./across), in having thicker cortical layer of thallus (50-75(-100) μm vs. 30 μm thick), in having larger cells in cortical layer (cell lumina to 10-15 μm vs. ca 5-9 μm diam./across), in having thicker hymenium (to 250 μm vs. to 150 μm high), and in having distinctly narrower ascospores (32-37 × (16-)17-21(-23) vs. 35.3-38.8-42.2 × (21.5-)22.9-24.9-26.9(-28.3) μm after Valadbeigi et al (2011), and (30-)35-48(-53)[-70] × (16-)21-32(-35) μm from our data see below), as well as in having narrower ascospore walls.…”

A new corticolousMegaspora(Megasporaceae) species from Armenia

“…Both currently accepted species, M. rimisorediata Valadbeigi & A. Nordin and M. verrucosa (Ach. ) Hafellner & V. Wirth (Valadbeigi & al. 2011), occur in Armenia (Gasparyan & Sipman 2013;Harutyunyan & al.…”