Flabelloporina squamulifera (Breuss, Lücking & Navarro) Sobreira, M. Cáceres & Lücking 2018

Sobreira, Priscylla Nayara Bezerra, Cáceres, Marcela Eugenia Da Silva, Maia, Leonor Costa & Lücking, Robert, 2018, Flabelloporina, a new genus in the Porinaceae (Ascomycota, Ostropales), with the first record of F. squamulifera from Brazil, Phytotaxa 358 (1), pp. 67-75 : 72-73

Flabelloporina squamulifera (Breuss, Lücking & Navarro) Sobreira, M. Cáceres & Lücking comb. nov.

Mycobank: MB 826749 Bas.: Porina squamulifera Breuss, Lücking & Navarro. , Herzogia 26, 2013: 225. Type: Costa Rica: Puntarenas, Coto Brus, Sabalito, La

Amistad Pacífico Conservation Area , Las Tablas Protection Zone, Fila Cedro ; 8°55’N, 82°46’W, 1600–1700 m; 27 June 2002, E .

Navarro 4823 ( INB-00070569, holotype; F, isotype) .

Description: —Thallus olive-green when fresh, growing directly on the bark or over bryophytes; squamules 0.3–1.0(– 3.0) mm broad and 0.2–0.6(–2.0) mm long. Perithecia 0.25–0.35 mm diam., brown-black, exposed, hemispherical; involucrellum brown-black to hyaline in inner parts, 30–50 μm wide, basally closed; excipulum paraplectenchymatous. Ascospores oblong to fusiform, hyaline, 3-septate with thin walls and septa, 15–20 × 3–4 μm.

Chemistry: —Perithecial walls containing Pseudosagedia -violet.

Material examined in addition to the material cited in the protologue:— Brazil: Espírito Santo, Santa Teresa, Estação Biológica Santa Lúcia , Atlantic rainforest remnant ; 19°58’11”S, 40°32’11”W, 650 m; 29 September 2015, R. Lücking et al. 39729 ( B, ISE) .

Discussion: — Flabelloporina squamulifera is characterized by its thallus bearing numerous squamules and the black, exposed perithecia. Originally discovered in Costa Rica ( Lücking et al. 2013), this is the first reported occurrence of the species in Brazil, considerably extending its range and suggesting its potential presence in wet forests across the Neotropics. This corticolous species is typically found in the understory of humid tropical rainforests. In Brazil, it was found covering almost the entire surface of the trunk of a single tree at Santa Lúcia Biological Station in Espírito Santo state, but was not detected on any other tree in this location.