Sticta beauvoisii Delise

Ossowska, Emilia Anna, Moncada, Bibiana, Luecking, Robert, Flakus, Adam, Rodriguez-Flakus, Pamela, Olszewska, Sandra & Kukwa, Martin, 2024, Additional new species and new records of the genus Sticta (lichenised Ascomycota, lobarioid Peltigeraceae) from Bolivia, MycoKeys 105, pp. 21-47 : 21

Sticta beauvoisii Delise

Fig. 6

Description.

For the description, see McDonald et al. (2003) and Moncada (2012).

Habitat and distribution.

The records of S. beauvoisii presented here are the first from Bolivia. The species was found on the bark of trees in Tucumano-Boliviano forest at elevations of 1815 m and 1900 m in the Tarija and Chuquisaca Departments. Before, S. beauvoisii was known from Colombia and North America: Canada and USA ( McDonald et al. 2003; Moncada 2012; Moncada et al. 2020, 2021a).

Notes.

Sticta beauvoisii is characterised by a smooth, yellowish-brown upper surface with darker apices, without apothecia, but with abundant, marginal, cylindrical to flattened isidia, which are light to dark brown coloured, a brown lower surface, golden-chocolate brown primary tomentum which becomes thin and shorter towards the margins and a sparse, golden-brown, fibrillose to fasciculate rhizines ( Delise 1825; McDonald et al. 2003; Moncada 2012).

Sticta beauvoisii belongs to clade III sensu Widhelm et al. (2018) (Fig. 1 ), as do, for example, S. weigelii and the undescribed ' S. luteocyphellata '. However, they differ in the colour of the upper and lower surface of the thalli, the isidia and the tomentum. In ' S. luteocyphellata ' the upper surface is light brown, with a brown marginal line and dark brown isidia. The lower surface, on the other hand, is cream to dark brown, with dense in the centre, but sparse towards the margin primary tomentum and greyish-brown with paler apices ( Moncada 2012). In S. weigelii , the upper surface is reddish-brown to dark brown with a black marginal line and blackish-brown isidia, while the lower surface is beige to reddish-brown with dark brown primary tomentum, dense to the margin ( Moncada 2012; Ossowska 2021). Both, ' S. luteocyphellata ' and S. weigelii produce abundant rhizines, which are white and fasciculate in ' S. luteocyphellata ' and brownish-black and fibrillose to anziform in S. weigelii ( Moncada 2012; Ossowska 2021; Torres et al. 2021). In contrast, S. beauvoisii has sparse, golden-brown, fibrillose to fasciculate rhizines ( McDonald et al. 2003). Another taxon with which S. beauvoisii may be confused is the not yet formally described ' S. pseudobeauvoisii ', but it produces narrow phyllidia, rather than isidia and the primary tomentum is light grey to brown, dense and sparse towards the margins ( Moncada 2012). ' Sticta pseudobeauvoisii ', like S. beauvoisii , belongs to clade III of the global Sticta phylogeny ( Widhelm et al. 2018; Fig. 1 ).

Specimens examined.

Bolivia. Dept. Chuquisaca; Prov. Hernando Siles, 15 km west of Monte Agudo, 19°48'57"S, 64°05'60"W, elev. 1815 m, disturbed Tucumano Boliviano Forest, corticolous, 20 July 2015, M. Kukwa 16480 (LPB, UGDA). Dept. Tarija; Prov. Aniceto Arce, Papachacra, 21°41'52"S, 64°29'15"W, elev. 1900 m, Tucumano Boliviano Forest , corticolous, 8 Aug 2012, M. Kukwa 11103 (LPB, UGDA) .

Figures

Figure 1. Best-scoring Maximum Likelihood tree of the Sticta target clade containing the new species from Bolivia (red) and the species new to Bolivia and phylogenetically confirmed from Bolivia (blue), based on the fungal ITS barcoding marker. Supported clades are thickened. For complete tree with individual support values, see Suppl. material 2.

Figure 6. Morphology of Sticta beauvoisii A upper surface (Kukwa 16480) B lower surface (Kukwa 16480) C marginal isidia (Kukwa 16480) D lower surface with tomentum, cyphellae and sparse rhizines (Kukwa 11103). Scale bars: 1 mm.