Lecanoropsis sarcopidoides (A. Massal.) Ivanovich & Printzen, 2025

Ivanovich, Cristóbal, Weber, Lilith, Palice, Zdeněk, Hollinger, Jason, Otte, Volker, Sohrabi, Mohammad, Sheehy, Steve & Printzen, Christian, 2025, A taxonomic revision of the lichen genus Lecanoropsis (Lecanoraceae), Phytotaxa 695 (1), pp. 1-56 : 40-41

Lecanoropsis sarcopidoides (A. Massal.) Ivanovich & Printzen , comb. nov. Fig. 14C & D .

MycoBank nº: 847155

Basionym: Biatora sarcopidoides A. Massal., Ric. auton. lich. crost. (Verona): 128 (1852; as sarcopisioides).

Type:— ITALY, Verona , 1851, A. Massal., Anzi, Lich. Rar. Veneti 61 (as Biatora sarcopisoides A. Massal. ; M — lectotype designated by Van den Boom & Brand 2008; FR-0078426!— isolectotype) .

Synonyms: Lecanora metaboloides Nyl. (1872: 250) — GERMANY. Bayern: Oberbayern. An Eichenpfosten des Hirschparkzaunes bei Eichstätt, 1860, Arnold, Lich. Exs. Lich. Jur. 708 (FR-0078423!).

Lecanora sarcopidoides (A. Massal.) Hedl. (1892: 47; as sarcopisoides ).

Lecanora sarcopidoides (A. Massal.) Hedl. var. hypnophaga Poelt (1957: 388) — GERMANY. Bayern: Oberbayern, Isarwinkelgebirge, zwischen Benediktbeuern und der Kohlstattalpe, 900 m alt., May 1957, Poelt, Lich. Alp. 36 (M— holotype; L-204991— isotype).

Lecanoropsis sarcopidoides (A. Massal.) M. Choisy (1949: 143 ; as sarcopisoides ) nom. illeg. (See under Lecanoropsis in p. 14).

Thallus mainly endosubstratal, rarely episubstratal, when episubstratal, effuse and amorphous, grey with a tinge of yellow or green to greyish brown. Photobiont a chlorococcoid/trebouxoid alga. Apothecia rounded, forming small to large groups that densely cover the substrate, usually sessile, rarely appressed, (0.22–)0.37–0.61(–0.71) mm in diameter. Apothecial disc flat to convex, light brown to almost black, often with greyish, blueish or violaceous hues, matte, with a white coarse pruina, often becoming epruinose in old apothecia. Apothecial margin of variable thickness, smooth but more often looking somewhat ragged, excluded in old apothecia. (0.02–)0.03–0.04(–0.05) mm wide. Whitish to beige. Amphithecium algal layer usually reaching near the upper edge of the apothecia, typically with golden-dark brown granules. Amphithecial cortex more or less even, heavily gelatinized, uncommonly with golden-dark brown granules, (15–)20–34(–39) µm wide laterally, (15–)22–27(–32) µm wide basally, hyaline, rarely pigmented faint yellow-brown on the outer edge. Parathecium sometimes present, hyaline to faint yellow-brown, 20–35 µm. Epihymenium hyaline, sometimes with yellow to faint brown patches of an unknown brown or yellow pigment (see Notes below), commonly without granules, rarely covered with golden-brown granules that dissolve in KOH. Hymenium hyaline, sometimes with yellow patches, (30–)35–40(–45) µm high. Subhymenial layers hyaline, (45–)65–85(–95) µm. Paraphyses simple, rarely branching and anastomosing, ca. 1.5–2 µm wide, apices weakly capitate, ca. 2–3.5 µm wide, apical gel sheath ca. 3.5–5.5 µm wide, sometimes pigmented brown at the apex. Spores narrowly ellipsoid, simple, hyaline, (6.0–)7.2– 9.5(–10.0) × (2.5–)3.2–3.6(–4.5) µm. Conidia : Microconidia bacilliform, 7–8 × 1.0–1.3 µm. Other types of conidia were not found by us, but van den Boom & Brand (2008) reported the presence of mesoconidia and leptoconidia: “ mesoconidia ellipsoid, 2.7–3.7(–4.1) × (1.1–)1.3–1.7 µm, leptoconidia slightly to strongly curved, ca. 19 × 0.7 µm”.

Chemistry: Pseudoplacodiolic acid.

Substrate: Mainly on hard wood (sometimes also on bark) of conifers, and on fence posts.

Ecology: L. sarcopidoides prefers well-lit subalpine to montane forests, mainly with Pinus but is also found on Larix , Picea , and Quercus . Between sea level and 950 m alt.

Distribution Central Europe. Also reported from the British Isles, Sweden and Western North America.

Notes: Lecanoropsis sarcopidoides has several uncommon features within Lecanoropsis : it sometimes produces dark blue-violet (due to the pruina), subglobose, apothecia that may appear biatorine and produces a pruina that can become so coarse that it obscures the coloration of the disc. In addition, the species produces pseudoplacodiolic acid, a metabolite also found in L. austrocascadensis , and rarely produced by L. albellula and L. subravida , which, respectively, produce isousnic acid and usnic acid as major metabolites.

Lecanoropsis sarcopidoides can be differentiated from L. albellula by the presence of reniform macroconidia in L. albellula , whereas L. sarcopidoides doesn’t seem to produce macroconidia. Also, the apothecia of L. albellula are smaller, but with higher subhymenial layers [72–103(–130) µm] and hymenium [43–62(–68) µm]. Spores of L. albellula are on average wider (3.7–7.0 µm) and may be longer (up to 15.3 µm).

Underdeveloped apothecia of Lecanoropsis subravida may resemble young apothecia of L. sarcopidoides , but L. subravida produces crescent-shaped macroconidia. In addition, the amphithecial cortex in L. subravida gets conspicuously widened basally (up to 91 µm, with in extreme cases 116 µm), whereas the amphithecial cortex in L. sarcopidoides measures 22–27(–32) µm.

L. sarcopidoides and L. subintricata can be challenging to differentiate (for more details, see notes under L. subintricata ). The faint brown-yellow epihymenial pigment of L. sarcopidoides , reacts N+ red and sordid yellow-orange to brown with subsequent application of K. This character can be useful to differentiate some specimens from L. subintricata whose epihymenium contains a mixture of Cinereorufa -green and Superba -brown (N+ red-brown, K+ weak dull brown soon vanishing in HCl, see Table 4).A similar epihymenial pigment reaction found in L. sarcopidoides was observed in pigmented specimens of L. albellula (see Notes under L. albellula ), with slight differences in the N reaction: in L. sarcopidoides it is strong cherry red; in L. albellula brownish-red ( Table 4).

A surprising outlier is the specimen UPS L-204991, L. “sarcopisoides ” var. hypnophaga , which grows on moss. This substrate choice is unique, as all the other taxa of Lecanoropsis prefer either wood or bark.

The spelling mistake in the basionym Biatora “sarcopisioides” Massalongo was corrected by Santesson (1984), where he uses the more appropriate spelling “ sarcopidoides ” for Caloplaca sarcopidoides (Körber) Zahlbruckner (1901: 346) , and Lecanora sarcopidoides . A commentary of the misspelling was published by Nimis & Poelt (1987) under Caloplaca sarcopidoides notes, supporting Santesson´s correction.

Selected specimens studied: CZECH REPUBLIC. Jihočeský kraj: Šumava Mts, Stožec, Černý Kříž , 740 m alt., 48°51.6681’ N 13°51.5168’ E, 14 July 2016, Z. Palice 21295 (FR-0362780; PRA), Lecanomics Code: 242 ; South Bohemia: Šumava Mts, Volary : nature reserve “Velká Niva” - W part, 750 m alt., 48°55.2202’ N 13°49.1546’ E, 20 August 2019, Z. Palice 27894 (FR-0362781; FR-0362782; PRA), Lecanomics Code: 574 ; 585; GERMANY. Baden-Württemberg: Freudenstadt, Schwarzwald , 950 m alt., 48°27.8626’ N 8°26.5765’ E, 29 September 2019, V. Wirth & Z. Palice ( Z. Palice 27835) (FR-0362783), Lecanomics Code: 570 ; Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Vorpommern- Greifswald, Hintersee , 25 m alt., 53°36.5657’ N 14°17.8665’ E, 16 May 2012, U. Schiefelbein 3272 (FR-0362784), Lecanomics Code: 663 ; SLOVAKIA. Banskobystrický kraj: Okres Revúca. W Carpathians. Muránska planina plateau: nature reserve Poludnica , Klin. 842 m alt., 48°45.7218’ N 20°2.0630’ E, 10 October 2019, A. Guttová, J. Halda & Z. Palice 27751 (FR-0362785; FR-0183018; PRA) Lecanomics Code: 565 ; 573.

Figures

FIGURE 14. Lecanoropsis subintricata (A & B), L. sarcopidoides (C & D) and L. subcinctula (E & F).A, Germany, Bayern, S. Kern TS3- 7-7 (FR-0279002; L201), habitus. B, Czech Republic, Jihočeský kraj, Z. Palice 21295 (FR-0362780; L243), apothecial section in LCB. C, Czech Republic, Jihočeský kraj, Z. Palice 27894 (FR-0362781; L574). D, Slovakia, Banskobystrický kraj, A. Guttová, J. Halda & Z. Palice 27751 (FR-0362785; L565), apothecial section in LCB. E, Japan, Shizuoka Prefecture, E.Almquist s.n. (H-NYL 26656=H9506878, lectotype), habitus. F, Japan, Tochigi Prefecture, C. Printzen 15192 (FR-0267107; L595), apothecial section in LCB. Scales: A, C & E = 500 µm; B, D & F = 20 µm.