Chaenotricha
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| Chaenotricha | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Coniocybomycetes |
| Order: | Coniocybales |
| Family: | Coniocybaceae |
| Genus: | Chaenotricha Suija, McMullin & P.Lõhmus (2023) |
| Type species | |
| Chaenotricha obscura (G.Merr.) Suija, McMullin & P.Lõhmus (2023) | |
| Species | |
Chaenotricha is a small genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Coniocybaceae.[1] Species live fungicolously, growing on the fruiting bodies of the poroid bracket fungus Trichaptum, and produce tiny, pin-like, dust-sporing fruiting bodies typical of calicioid lichens. The genus was established in 2023 to accommodate a distinct lineage of Trichaptum specialists. These lichens occur on standing dead conifer trunks and snags in boreal and hemiboreal forests of northern Europe and North America. The two described species are distinguished primarily by stalk length and ascospore size, though DNA sequencing is often needed for reliable identification.
Fungicolous, calicioid lichens growing on Trichaptum have been noted since the nineteenth century,[2] including a Scandinavian record by Theodor Fries (1865) of a Chaenotheca brunneola variant cilians on that host,[3] although the original material is lost. In North America, George Merrill (1909) described Calicium obscurum from Trichaptum;[4] the name was later used in Chaenotheca, and a superficially similar North American taxon, Chaenotheca balsamconensis (2015),[5] was subsequently shown to be the same species as Merrill's and treated as a synonym.[2]
A molecular re-assessment of chaenothecoid fungi occurring on Trichaptum demonstrated that these specimens form a separate lineage within Coniocybomycetes, sister to the combined clade of Chaenotheca in the loose sense and Sclerophora. On that evidence, the new genus Chaenotricha was erected in 2023 for the Trichaptum-specialists. The new combination Chaenotricha obscura was made for Merrill's taxon, with an epitype from Michigan designated to fix the application of the name; a new European species, C. cilians, was introduced, and a third, well-supported lineage was left undescribed for now because material was limited. The genus name combines Chaenotheca (where these fungi had been placed historically) and Trichaptum, their host.[2]