Verrucaria aucklandica
| Verrucaria aucklandica | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Division: | Ascomycota |
| Class: | Eurotiomycetes |
| Order: | Verrucariales |
| Family: | Verrucariaceae |
| Genus: | Verrucaria |
| Species: | V. aucklandica
|
| Binomial name | |
| Verrucaria aucklandica Zahlbr. (1941)
| |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Verrucaria aucklandica is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling) crustose lichen in the family Verrucariaceae.[2] It forms thin, greyish crusts that crack into small angular plates on coastal rocks exposed to salt spray. The species was first discovered at Anawhata Bay near Auckland in the early 20th century. Though originally thought to be endemic to New Zealand, it has since been found in Tasmania and Taiwan.
Taxonomy
Verrucaria aucklandica was formally described as a new species in 1941 by the German lichenologist Alexander Zahlbruckner. The type was collected by the New Zealand botanist Lucy Cranwell.[3] The taxon Verrucaria tessellatuloidea, described by Patrick McCarthy in 1991 from collections made in Cape Bruny, Tasmania,[4] is now considered a synonym of V. adguttata.[5]
Description
The thallus is an epilithic (rock-dwelling) crust that adheres tightly to the substrate and is rather thin, measuring to about 0.35 mm thick. It is dull grey to grey-brown and chemically unreactive in the standard chemical spot tests (K–, C–). The surface is areolate (cracked into small, mostly angular plates); each areole is 1–1.5 mm across, separated by fine fissures and with a smooth, flat to slightly domed upper face. A narrow cortex overlies a homoiomerous interior (the algal cells are distributed through the thallus rather than in a distinct layer). The photobiont consists of bright-green, spherical "cystococcoid" cells (spherical green algal cells that are wrapped in a conspicuous gelatinous capsule), 10–15 micrometres (μm) in diameter, evenly spread through the thallus.[3]
The fruiting bodies are immersed and appear at the surface only as tiny black pin-points. Zahlbruckner called them "apothecia" in the older sense; in modern terms they are perithecia: flask-shaped structures with a pore-like opening at the top. The perithecial wall is dark brown-black, roughly 30–35 μm thick at the sides and base, becoming thicker near the top to about 60 μm, and passing into a short straight neck. The interior tissues are colourless. Hair-fine periphyses line the pore; distinct paraphyses are absent. Asci are oval to club-shaped and eight-spored. The ascospores are colourless and simple (without internal septa), ellipsoid to oval, straight, thin-walled and with evenly oily contents, measuring about 10–11 μm × 6 μm. Each areole may contain one to several (up to nine) perithecia.[3]
Habitat and distribution
The species was described from coastal rock at Anawhata Bay, North Auckland (Auckland Region), New Zealand, where it forms a thin, adherent crust directly on the seaside rock.[3] It has also been recorded from the Poor Knights Islands off the east coast of North Auckland,[6] and well as western and southern Tasmania.[7] Verrucaria aucklandica was recorded from Taiwan in 2003.[8]
See also
References
- ^ "Synonymy. Current Name: Verrucaria aucklandica Zahlbr., Denkschr. Kaiserl. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Naturwiss. Kl. 104: 250 (1941)". Species Fungorum. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
- ^ "Verrucaria aucklandica Zahlbr". Catalogue of Life. Species 2000: Leiden, the Netherlands. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
- ^ a b c d Zahlbruckner, A. (1941). "Lichenes Novae-Zelandiae a cl H. H. Allan eiusque collaboratoribus lecti" [Lichens of New Zealand collected by the distinguished H. H. Allan and his collaborators]. Denkschriften der Akademie der Wissenschaften (Wien) Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse (in Latin). 104: 249–380 [250].
- ^ McCarthy, P.M. (1991). "Notes on Australian Verrucariaceae (Lichenes): 2". Muelleria. 7 (3): 317–332 [330]. doi:10.5962/p.198514.
- ^ "Record Details: Verrucaria tessellatuloidea P.M. McCarthy, Muelleria 7(3): 330 (1991)". Index Fungorum. Retrieved 21 October 2025.
- ^ Hayward, Bruce W.; Wright, Anthony E. (1991). "Lichens from the Poor Knights /islands, northern New Zealand – additions and an updated species list". Tane. 33: 39–48.
- ^ McCarthy, P.M. (December 2012). "Verrucaria aucklandica Zahlbr" (PDF). Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Version 20.
- ^ Aptroot, A (2003). "Pyrenocarpous lichens and related non-lichenized ascomycetes from Taiwan". Journal of the Hattori Botanical Laboratory. 93: 155–173. doi:10.18968/jhbl.93.0_155.