Gonotichia
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| Gonotichia | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lichinomycetes |
| Order: | Lichinales |
| Family: | Lichinellaceae |
| Genus: | Gonotichia M.Schultz & M.Prieto (2024) |
| Type species | |
| Gonotichia octosporella (Lettau) M.Schultz & M.Prieto (2024) | |
| Species | |
Gonotichia is a small genus of cyanolichens (lichens that partner with cyanobacteria) in the family Lichinellaceae. The genus was established in 2024 as part of a major reorganisation of cyanolichen classification based on DNA studies, and contains just two species that form tiny, dark crusts on sun-exposed rocks. These lichens are characterised by their distinctive reproductive structures that develop as swellings within the lichen body rather than as separate disc-like structures on the surface.
The genus was circumscribed by Matthias Schultz and María Prieto as part of a class-wide phylogenetic revision that reorganised Lichinomycetes into four families (three emended and one new). Within this scheme, Gonotichia forms a distinct clade in Lichinellaceae, which the authors diagnose chiefly by thallinocarpous ascomata and a Lichinella-type ascus. The type species is Gonotichia octosporella, a taxon that was originally described as Gonohymenia octosporella by Georg Lettau in 1942.[1] A second species, G. depauperata (originally described as Gonohymenia myriospora var. depauperata by Miroslav Servít in 1937[2]), was also included in the original treatment.[3]
Description
Species of Gonotichia are minute, rock-dwelling cyanolichens. The thallus (lichen body) is crustose, forming thin, dark, irregular patches (areoles) on the substrate rather than a leafy or shrubby form. The sexual reproductive structures are thallinocarpous, i.e. the ascomata develop within swellings of the thallus instead of as open, disc-like apothecia on the surface. Asci conform to the Lichinella-type used to characterise Lichinellaceae; in the type species they bear eight ascospores.[3]