Astrothelium sexloculatum
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| Astrothelium sexloculatum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Dothideomycetes |
| Order: | Trypetheliales |
| Family: | Trypetheliaceae |
| Genus: | Astrothelium |
| Species: | A. sexloculatum |
| Binomial name | |
| Astrothelium sexloculatum Aptroot (2016) | |
Astrothelium sexloculatum is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Trypetheliaceae.[1] Found in Guyana and Papua New Guinea, it was formally described as a new species in 2016 by Dutch lichenologist André Aptroot. The type specimen was collected by Harrie Sipman on the Dadadanawa ranch (Rupununi savannah, Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo, Guyana) at an altitude of 120 m (390 ft); there, it was found growing on smooth tree bark in a savanna. The lichen has a smooth and somewhat shiny, pale yellowish-grey thallus with a cortex and a thin (up to 0.1 mm wide) black prothallus line. It covers areas of up to 9 cm (3.5 in) in diameter. Both the thallus and the pseudostromata 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 the indistinctly pseudostromatic ascomata, with erumpent to prominent pseudostromata that are covered by thallus.[3] The species epithet sexloculatum refers to the ascospores, which are divided into six chambers (locules) by five transverse septa.[2]