Mazosia uniseptata
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| Mazosia uniseptata | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Arthoniomycetes |
| Order: | Arthoniales |
| Family: | Roccellaceae |
| Genus: | Mazosia |
| Species: | M. uniseptata |
| Binomial name | |
| Mazosia uniseptata Lücking (2006) | |
Mazosia uniseptata is a species of foliicolous (leaf-dwelling) lichen in the family Roccellaceae.[1] First described from French Guiana in 2006, it has since been recorded on shaded understory leaves in seasonally dry lowland forest in neighbouring Guyana, extending its known range across the Guianan Shield. The lichen forms a thin, pale green-grey film sparsely clothed in simple hairs and dotted with minute black apothecia (fruiting bodies) that appear faintly translucent when wet. It is readily distinguished from others in its genus by its eight narrowly spindle-shaped ascospores, each divided by a single septum rather than the multiple septa that typify most Mazosia species.
The German lichenologist Robert Lücking introduced Mazosia uniseptata in 1995, based on material he collected on understory leaves in the lowland rain-forest near the Nouragues Field Station, French Guiana. The holotype was lodged in the Cayenne herbarium (CAY). In the protologue Lücking contrasted the new taxon with M. pilosa and M. phyllosema, noting that it mimics a depauperate form of the former because of its very sparse pilose covering, and a juvenile thallus of the latter because the short hairs can be overlooked. The decisive character that sets M. uniseptata apart is its small, single-septate ascospore, a feature otherwise seen only in the lichenicolous (parasitic-on-lichens) M. adelphoparasitica. Unlike that parasite, however, M. uniseptata is an autonomous lichen whose apothecia are the only fruit-bodies present on the thallus.[2]
Within Mazosia the species is therefore readily diagnosed by the combination of a thin, finely pilose foliicolous thallus and eight narrowly fusiform spores that are divided by a single cross-wall. Its discovery broadens the morphological range recognised in the genus, indicating that reduced septation in spores evolved at least twice—once in a parasitic lineage and again in a free-living one—and provides another example of Neotropical endemism among leaf-dwelling lichens.[2]