Zoopsis setigera Goebel

Thouvenot, Louis & Müller, Frank, 2021, Contribution to the bryophyte flora of New Caledonia IV. Species new to the country, new localities together with taxonomic notes, Cryptogamie, Bryologie 20 (13), pp. 181-196 : 186

* Zoopsis setigera Goebel

SPECIMENS EXAMINED. — New Caledonia. South Province, Yaté, Parc de la Rivière Bleue, sentier des Méliphages, 22°06’S, 166°39’E, c. 180 m, 30.XI.2010, Reichel NC887 (DR); Mont-Dore, Mouirange, leaf litter in lowland wet forest, 500-550 m, 19.IX.2019, Thouvenot NC2866.

COMMENTS

Zoopsis setigera is very similar to Zoopsis setulosa Leitg. The New Caledonian plants of this species were treated for a long time as Z. rigida Pearson , but this species was synonymized with Z. setulosa by Grolle & Piippo (1984). Zoopsis setulosa is well represented among our collections, but besides this, we have found two distinctive specimens that we could attribute to Z. setigera according to the characters given in Schuster (1999) and Grolle & Piippo (1984). The two basal cells of the leaf rudiment at their base are united for only ⅛-¼(-²/₅), their apex is slightly more narrowly rounded and especially the cortical cells of the ventral merophytes are narrowly rectangular and only about 22-27 µm wide ( Fig. 4 ). Z. setigera is known from Indonesia (West Irian, Kalimantan), Papua New Guinea, Malaysia (Sabah) and the Solomon Island ( Grolle & Piippo 1984, Menzel 1988).

Figures

FIG. 4. — Zoopsis setigera Goebel.: A, part of plant, dorsal aspect; B, part of plant, ventral aspect; C, detail of ventral merophyte with cortical cells narrowly rectangular and only about 22–27 µm wide. All from K. Reichel NC887. Scale bars: A-C, 100 µm.