Upretia zeorina
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| Upretia zeorina | |
|---|---|
 | |
| scale bar: 2 mm | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Lecanoromycetes |
| Order: | Teloschistales |
| Family: | Teloschistaceae |
| Genus: | Upretia |
| Species: | U. zeorina |
| Binomial name | |
| Upretia zeorina L.J.Li & Printzen (2023) | |
 Type locality: Huili, China | |
Upretia zeorina is a species of crustose lichen in the family Teloschistaceae.[1] It forms small, dark brown to blackish scaly patches on exposed rock in the hot, dry valleys of the Jinsha River system in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, at elevations of roughly 1,520 to 1,880 m (4,990 to 6,170 ft). The species is distinguished by its black fruiting bodies with a distinctive double-margined structure and a whitish powdery coating on the thallus. Chemically, it contains gyrophoric acid as its sole major secondary metabolite.
Upretia zeorina was described as a new species in 2023 by Lijuan Li and Christian Printzen, based on material collected from arid-valley localities in southwestern China. In internal transcribed spacer-based phylogenetic analyses, the specimens formed a well-supported lineage within Upretia, recovered as sister to Upretia squamulosa; the genus itself was recovered as monophyletic and sister to Ioplaca pindarensis. The type was collected on rock in Sichuan (Huili County) at about 1,880 m (6,170 ft).[2]
The epithet zeorina refers to the apothecia, which have a zeorine structure with a thalline outer margin and a distinct inner proper margin. In the original comparison, U. zeorina was separated from the Indian type species U. amarkantakana by its darker thallus, zeorine (rather than lecanorine) apothecia with black discs, larger ascospores, longer conidia, and the presence of gyrophoric acid. It is also close to U. squamulosa in spore size and overall ecology, but differs in its blackish, partly pruinose thallus and black apothecial discs, and in producing gyrophoric acid without lecanoric acid.[2]