Astrothelium grossoides
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| Astrothelium grossoides | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Dothideomycetes |
| Order: | Trypetheliales |
| Family: | Trypetheliaceae |
| Genus: | Astrothelium |
| Species: | A. grossoides |
| Binomial name | |
| Astrothelium grossoides | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Astrothelium grossoides is a species of lichen in the family Trypetheliaceae. It forms olive-green to brownish patches with a distinctly bumpy, blistered surface on tree bark in tropical forests, particularly in well-lit canopy environments and open woodland habitats. The species is recognized by its closely packed fruiting bodies that are largely embedded and overgrown by the thallus, each opening through a pore at the apex, and by relatively small ascospores with three cross-walls. It was formally established in 2016 under a replacement scientific name to avoid duplication with an earlier-named species, based on type material originally collected from Papua New Guinea where it occurs locally in abundance.
In 2016, André Aptroot and Robert Lücking published Astrothelium grossoides as a replacement name (a nomen novum) for Trypethelium grossum Müll.Arg. (1884). The specific epithet grossum could not be used in Astrothelium because it would have duplicated the already-published name Astrothelium grossum Müll.Arg. (1888), creating a later homonym (the same name used for two different species). The type collection (Naumann 409) is from Papua New Guinea, with an isotype (a duplicate specimen) housed in the herbarium of the Natural History Museum, London.[2]