Bulbothrix thomasiana
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| Bulbothrix thomasiana | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Lecanorales |
| Family: | Parmeliaceae |
| Genus: | Bulbothrix |
| Species: | B. thomasiana |
| Binomial name | |
| Bulbothrix thomasiana Benatti & Marcelli (2011) | |
Bulbothrix thomasiana is a species of foliose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae.[1] It is a corticolous species that grows on tree trunks in the northern and central parts of South America. The lichen was formally described as a new species in 2011 by lichenologists Michel Benatti and Marcelo Marcelli. The specific epithet honours American lichenologist Thomas Hawkes Nash III. The species is distinguished by its unusual vegetative structures (isidia), which are uniquely fringed with tiny hair-like projections. It has been found growing on tree bark in tropical forests across northern South America, from Venezuela and French Guiana to central Brazil and Bolivia.
Bulbothrix thomasiana was formally described in 2011 by Michel Benatti and Marcelo Marcelli, who based the new species on a well-developed thallus collected in 1969 on the Kweikin-ima Tepui, Bolívar State, Venezuela. The authors separated it from the superficially similar B. apophysata because its vegetative propagules (isidia) are themselves rimmed with tiny, bulb-based cilia—a feature otherwise known only in B. fungicola and B. sipmanii. They also pointed to its uniformly pale-brown lower cortex, abundant rhizines the same colour as the cortex, ecoronate apothecia (with a plain, smooth margin rather than a ciliate or lobulate one), and medullary lobaric acid chemistry as reliable differentiators.[2]
The type material of B. laevigatula was long thought to possess ciliate isidia, leading to confusion between that species, B. apophysata, and the unnamed taxon that is now B. thomasiana. Benatti and Marcelli re-examined the mixed "Leprieur 504" collections cited by earlier authors and showed that the true B. laevigatula has smooth isidia and a black lower surface, whereas the ciliate-isidiate fragments represent B. thomasiana. The specific epithet honours the American lichenologist Thomas Hawkes Nash III for his contributions to the study of parmelioid lichens.[2]