Atla palicei
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| Atla palicei | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Eurotiomycetes |
| Order: | Verrucariales |
| Family: | Verrucariaceae |
| Genus: | Atla |
| Species: | A. palicei |
| Binomial name | |
| Atla palicei Savić & Tibell (2008) | |
 Holotype: Låktatjåkka, Sweden | |
Atla palicei is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Verrucariaceae.[1] It forms a thin, blackish-brown to black growth with a scurfy appearance and a diffusely areolate pattern on its substrate. The lichen contains a complex mixture of photobionts, including an unidentified green alga and cyanobacteria from the genera Nostoc and Chroococcus. It is characterised by small hemispherical perithecia (averaging 0.46 mm in diameter) that emerge from small areolae, with each perithecium surrounded by a cuff-like structure. The species was formally described in 2008 based on specimens collected in Sweden, and has been tentatively reported from Finland, though with some molecular and morphological differences. It is found growing on calcareous rocks near streams at elevations between 410 and 650 metres.
The lichen was formally described as a new species in 2008 by Sanja Savić and Leif Tibell. The type specimen was collected in the Kärkevagge valley (Låktatjåkka, Kiruna Municipality), where it was found near a stream growing on a west-facing calcareous boulder. It is only known to occur in the Torne Lappmark in Sweden at elevations between 410 and 650 m (1,350 and 2,130 ft), but the authors suggest that it is "probably overlooked elsewhere". The type specimen was collected by the Czech lichenologist Zdeněk Palice, for whom the species is named.[2]
In 2016, Juha Pykälä and Leena Myllys reported a specimen from Finland that was initially identified as A. palicei based on morphological features. However, molecular analysis showed that the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) DNA sequence of this specimen differed from the type specimen by about 3%, which is at the threshold typically used for distinguishing fungal species. The Finnish specimen also had slight morphological differences, including a thinner involucrellum (70–90 μm thick compared to 90–110 μm in the type specimen) and a less developed, non-areolate thallus. Despite these differences, the authors provisionally maintained this specimen within A. palicei, noting that additional material would be needed to determine whether it represents a distinct but closely related species.[3]