A new species of Megalaria (Ramalinaceae, Ascomycota) from Thailand, and recognition of subgenus Catillochroma

By

Phraphuchamnong, Phimpisa
Nelsen, Matthew P.
Distefano, Isabel
Mercado-Díaz, Joel
Parnmen, Sittiporn
Rangsiruji, Achariya
Buaruang, Kawinnat
Lücking, Robert
Lumbsch, Thorsten

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2022

Original Publication

MycoKeys

Volume

93

Pages

149--163

Subjects

Asia , Lichens , mangroves , new taxa , tropical diversity

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers 2011-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.93.90962

 

Abstract

Tropical regions harbor a substantial diversity of lichenized fungi, but face numerous threats to their persistence, often even before previously unknown species have been described and their evolutionary relationships have been elucidated.Megalaria(Ramalinaceae) is a lichen-forming genus of fungi that produces crustose thalli, and includes a number of lineages occupying tropical rain forests; however, taxonomic and phylogenetic work on this clade is limited. Here we leverage both morphological and sequence data to describe a new species from the tropics,M. pachaylenophila. This taxon forms a crustose thallus, lacks secondary metabolites, and occurs in mangrove forests of Thailand. We supplemented molecular data from this species with data from other species, including two genera related to and occasionally included inMegalaria, namelyCatillochromaandLopezaria. Our analyses revealedCatillochromaspecies form a monophyletic group embedded withinMegalaria, and we therefore recognize this clade at the subgeneric level. Since we only included the type species ofLopezariain this study, we refrain from proposing a taxonomic conclusion for that clade at the moment. Several taxonomic combinations are made to reflect phylogenetic evidence supporting the inclusion of these species inMegalaria.