Fibrillithecis sprucei
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| Fibrillithecis sprucei | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Graphidales |
| Family: | Graphidaceae |
| Genus: | Fibrillithecis |
| Species: | F. sprucei |
| Binomial name | |
| Fibrillithecis sprucei | |
Fibrillithecis sprucei is a rare species of lichen in the family Graphidaceae,[1] known only from a single historic collection. It was discovered by re-examining a 19th-century plant collection made by the British botanist Richard Spruce along Brazil's Rio Negro river. The species is distinguished by its unusually large ascospores and contains psoromic acid, which produces a distinctive yellow reaction in chemical spot tests.
Fibrillithecis sprucei was described in 2011 by Mangold, Robert Lücking and H. Thorsten Lumbsch after re-examining a 19th-century collection made by the British botanist Richard Spruce on the Rio Negro in Amazonas State, Brazil. Spruce's bark sample actually held two similar lichens: the previously named Fibrillithecis dehiscens (originally Thelotrema dehiscens) and a second, overlooked form with much larger apothecia and spores. Although molecular data were not yet available, clear morphological differences warranted recognition of the larger-spored material as a new species, named in honour of its collector. F. sprucei is the first member of the genus known to produce large, richly muriform ascospores (120–180 × 25–35 μm); all other species have much smaller, simply septate or only weakly muriform spores no longer than about 60 μm.[2]
A three-gene phylogeny that sampled most segregate genera of the Myriotrema–Ocellularia complex placed Fibrillithecis as sister to Myriotrema sensu stricto, but F. sprucei fell outside this core clade, indicating it may represent an independent lineage within the group.[3]