Fungalpedia – Note 423, Glyphopsis

 

Glyphopsis Aptroot 

Citation when using this data: Tibpromma et al. 2024 (in prep.) – Fungalpedia, Ascomata.

Index FungorumFacesoffungi, MycoBankGenBank, Fig. 1

Classification: Incertae sedis, Arthoniales, Arthoniomycetidae, Arthoniomycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi

Glyphopsis was first introduced by Aptroot (2014) to the type species Glyphopsis aurantiodisca from New Caledonia. This new genus was identified using morphological and thin-layer chromatography (TLC), and no molecular studies were conducted (Aptroot 2014). Because this genus is difficult to classify into any known lichen genus, it is included in a different genus within Arthoniales (Aptroot 2014). The species was identified on the bark of trees in scrub forests and had characteristic bright orange discs in nearly pure white thalli. Upon closer examination, the thallus was crustose, cracked, not corticate, dull, with hyaline crystals (often falling out leaving angular holes), white, rather thin, and closely following the bark surface, medulla white, without a prothallus (Aptroot 2014). Ascomata are sessile, broadly branching, spherical, irregularly linear, or somewhat branched, and they frequently occur in groups of structures resembling stroma. The yellowish hypothecium and parathecium are thin and pigmented, as seen in orange. Hamathecium: hyaline, not immersed, though with orange pigment streaks; filaments anastomosing. Broadly clavate asci with eight ascospores and distinctly thickened tip (Aptroot 2014). Ascospores are hyaline, (5–) 7 × 0–1-septate with usually only 1–4 longitudinal septa, somewhat clavate, while pycnidia are not observed (Aptroot 2014). Glyphopsis is a monotypic genus of Arthoniales.

Type species: Glyphopsis aurantiodisca Aptroot

Other accepted species: This genus is monotypic.

 

Figure 1 – Glyphopsis aurantiodisca (isotype in ABL). a Habitat. b Asci with ascospores. Ascospore. Scale bars: b, c = 10 μm. Redrawn from Aptroot (2014).

 

 

Reference

Aptroot A. 2014 – Two new genera of Arthoniales from New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, with the description of eight further species. The Bryologist 117(3), 282–289.

 

Entry by

Priyashantha AKH, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand 

 

(Edited by Saowaluck Tibpromma, Samaneh Chaharmiri-Dokhaharani, & Achala R. Rathnayaka)

 

Published online 2 December 2024