Biology:Astrothelium megochroleucum
| Astrothelium megochroleucum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Dothideomycetes |
| Order: | Trypetheliales |
| Family: | Trypetheliaceae |
| Genus: | Astrothelium |
| Species: | A. megochroleucum
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| Binomial name | |
| Astrothelium megochroleucum Aptroot (2016)
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Astrothelium megochroleucum is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Trypetheliaceae.[1] Found in El Salvador, it was formally described as a new species in 2016 by Dutch lichenologist André Aptroot. The type specimen was collected by Harrie Sipman in the El Imposible National Park (Ahuachapán) at an altitude of 1,300 m (4,300 ft); there, it was found in a coffee plantation growing on the smooth tree bark of Leucaena trichandra.[2]
The lichen has a smooth and somewhat shiny, ochraceous thallus with a cortex and a thin (about 0.1 mm wide) black prothallus line. It covers areas of up to 4 cm (1.6 in) in diameter. The presence of the lichen induces the formation of galls in the host plant; as a consequence, the bark underneath the thallus splits open and forms a callus. Both the thallus and the pseudostroma contain lichexanthone, a lichen product that causes these structures to fluoresce yellow when lit with a long-wavelength UV light.[2] The combination of characteristics of the lichen that distinguish it from others in Astrothelium are its prominent, whitish, pseudostromatic ascomata, and the dimensions of its ascospores (60–70 by 16–18 μm).[3] These spores have three septa, a character that separates it from the otherwise similar Astrothelium ochroleucoides.[2]
References
- ↑ "Astrothelium megochroleucum Aptroot". Species 2000: Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands. https://www.catalogueoflife.org/data/taxon/J5GD.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Aptroot, André; Ertz, Damien; Etayo Salazar, Javier Angel; Gueidan, Cécile; Mercado Diaz, Joel Alejandro; Schumm, Felix; Weerakoon, Gothamie (2016). "Forty-six new species of Trypetheliaceae from the tropics". The Lichenologist 48 (6): 609–638. doi:10.1017/s002428291600013x.
- ↑ Aptroot, André; Lücking, Robert (2016). "A revisionary synopsis of the Trypetheliaceae (Ascomycota: Trypetheliales)". The Lichenologist 48 (6): 763–982. doi:10.1017/s0024282916000487.
Wikidata ☰ Q107503871 entry
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