Agonimia pacifica
Synonyms
Agonimiella pacifica
Family
Verrucariaceae
Flora category
Lichen – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Lichens - Squamulose
Current conservation status
2018 | Data Deficient | Qualifiers: SO
Brief description
Characterised by the lichenicolous habit; the very small, squamulose thallus; exposed blackish perithecia; very large, strongly muriform ascospores; and an absence of hymenial algae.
Distribution
North Island: Northland (Te Mika). Recently recorded in the Waikatō (Hutchison 2022). Still very poorly collected and understood in New Zealand.
Western Pacific. Known from Japan, Korea, Papua New Guinea and Brazil and Taiwan.
Habitat
Lichenicolous. Recorded on Pseudocyphellaria coriacea in Northland (Te Mika). Elsewhere in its range the species grown on either bark or rock (Harada 1993: 504).
Detailed description
Thallus squamulose, usually of densely aggregated squamules and appearing almost subcrustose, to ±scattered, loosely or tightly attached to substratum, to 5 cm diam. Prothallus whitish, thin, indistinct. Lobes radiately or irregularly branched or dissected, to 0.05 mm wide, adnate or slightly ascending, discrete or contiguous. Upper surface pale- to dark-green, tinged brownish, matt, smooth, plane to convex. Lower surface pale greenish or whitish, with whitish rhizohyphae. Perithecia common, scattered, upper parts exposed, below clothed with squamules, spherical at first becoming ovoid or obpyriform (0.2–)0.4–0.8(–1.0) mm tall and 0.2–0.4 mm wide, grey or blackish or ±brownish, dull or glossy. Exciple smooth, very dark-brown to black in outer parts, very dark-brown to hyaline in inner parts, 30–50 μm thick at sides. Periphyses simple, 50 μm long and 2.5 μm diam. Hypothecium concave above, to 25 μm thick at centre. Hymenial algae absent. Hymenium I+ faint blue. Asci clavate, 125–250 × 25–40 μm. Ascospores 1–4 per ascus, hyaline, strongly muriform, thin-walled, ellipsoidal, oval to subfusiform, 45–230 × (15–)22–35 μm.
Substrate
Lichenicolous
Etymology
pacifica: Of the Pacific Ocean.
First collected by the late John Bartlett, 6.ii.1981 (BM). Recorded by Kondratyuk & Galloway (1995: 340) as Agonimia sp.
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared by Melissa Hutchison (14 June 2023). Brief description, Distribution, Habitat, Features and Extra Information sections copied from Galloway (2007).
References and further reading
Galloway D.J. 2007: Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, including lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi. 2nd edition. Lincoln, Manaaki Whenua Press. 2261 pp.
Harada H. 1993: Agonimiella, a new genus in the family Verrucariaceae (Lichenes). Nova Hedwigia 57: 503-510.
Hutchison M. 2022: iNaturalist observation. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/109993808. Date accessed: 14 June 2023.
Kondratyuk S.Y. and Galloway D.J. 1995: Lichenicolous fungi and chemical patterns in Pseudocyphellaria. Bibliotheca Lichenologica 57: 327-345.