Cresponea ancistrosporelloides

{{Short description|Species of lichen}}

{{Short description|Species of lichen}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}}

{{Use Oxford spelling|date=July 2025}}

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'''''Cresponea ancistrosporelloides''''' is a species of [[lichen]] in the family [[Opegraphaceae]]. Known only from [[Stirling Range National Park]] in [[Western Australia]], it was described as new to science in 2011. The [[botanical name|specific epithet]] ''ancistrosporelloides '' refers to the similarity of its tailed [[spore]]s to those of genus ''[[Ancistrosporella]]''.<ref name="Lumbsch 2011"/>

'''''Cresponea ancistrosporelloides''''' is a species of [[lichen]] in the family [[Opegraphaceae]].<ref name="CoL_ZF6K"/> Known only from [[Stirling Range National Park]] in [[Western Australia]], it was described as new to science in 2011. The [[botanical name|specific epithet]] ''ancistrosporelloides'' refers to the similarity of its tailed [[spore]]s to those of genus ''[[Ancistrosporella]]''. The lichen forms pale grey [[crustose lichen|crusts]] on [[volcanic rock]] and produces small black reproductive discs. It grows in dry [[shrubland]] at about 740 metres elevation and is one of only seven species in its genus found in Australia.

==Taxonomy==

''Cresponea ancistrosporelloides'' was [[species description|formally described]] by Laurens Sparrius and [[Harrie Sipman]] from a single specimen collected in 1994 on the upper slopes of [[Toolbrunup]] peak in [[Western Australia]]'s [[Stirling Range National Park]]. Although its tailed, many-celled spores recall those of the genus ''[[Ancistrosporella]]'', the species lacks the {{lichengloss|lirellate}} fruiting bodies typical of that group. Instead it has small, rounded [[apothecia]] and an iodine-positive [[hymenium]], characters that accord better with the crustose, largely tropical genus ''[[Cresponea]]''. Because its spores also lack the thick walls and swollen [[septum]] edges considered diagnostic for ''[[Cresponea]]'', the authors placed the [[taxon]] there only provisionally, pending broader phylogenetic work. Within the genus it is distinguished by its unusually long, spirally coiled basal spore appendage—an attribute unmatched in any other named species.<ref name="Lumbsch et al. 2011"/>

==Description==

The lichen forms a pale grey, thin crust that can exceed ten centimetres across. The [[thallus]] is neatly cracked into irregular {{lichengloss|areoles}} 0.1–0.6&nbsp;mm wide, separated by hair-line fissures. A {{lichengloss|cortex}} of tightly interwoven fungal filaments ([[hypha]]e), up to 30&nbsp;μm thick, overlies a white [[medulla (lichenology|medulla]] containing loose hyphae and orange-brown cells of ''[[Trentepohlia (alga)|Trentepohlia]]''-type {{lichengloss|photobiont}}.<ref name="Lumbsch et al. 2011"/>

Black, slightly glossy apothecia are abundant. They are flat-topped, 0.3–0.6&nbsp;mm in diameter, and have a narrow rim that does not rise above the disc. In section the {{lichengloss|exciple}} is dark brown and densely cemented, the [[hymenium]] is 60–65&nbsp;μm tall and [[staining|stains]] reddish with iodine, and the {{lichengloss|epithecium}} forms a granular, dark-brown cap about 20&nbsp;μm deep. Each flask-shaped [[ascus]] contains eight spindle-shaped ({{lichengloss|fusiform}}) [[ascospore]]s divided by seven transverse walls ([[septum|septa]]); the spores measure 35–50 × 5&nbsp;μm and taper into a 20&nbsp;μm-long tail that coils beneath the main body while still inside the ascus. No [[pycnidia]] or [[lichen product]]s have been detected; standard [[spot test (lichen)|spot tests]] on the thallus are negative.<ref name="Lumbsch et al. 2011"/>

==Habitat and distribution==

The species is known solely from the [[type (biology)|type]] collection made at about 740&nbsp;m elevation on the southern flank of the Stirling Range. It grows on [[volcanic rock]] within a dry [[sclerophyll]] community that is punctuated by denser shrub pockets.<ref name="Lumbsch et al. 2011"/> ''Cresponea ancistrosporelloides'' is one of seven ''[[Cresponea]]'' species known to occur in Australia, and one of the few [[saxicolous lichen|saxicolous]] (rock-dwelling) members of the genus.<ref name="Kantvilas et al. 2020"/>

==References==

==References==

{{Reflist|refs=

{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="CoL_ZF6K">{{Catalogue of Life |id=ZF6K |title=''Cresponea ancistrosporelloides'' Sparrius & Sipman |access-date=4 July 2025}}</ref>

<ref name="Lumbsch 2011">{{cite journal |vauthors=Lumbsch T, Ahti T, Altermann S, Arup U, Kärnefelt I, Thell A, etal |title=One hundred new species of lichenized fungi: a signature of undiscovered global diversity |journal=Phytotaxa |year=2011 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=1–127 (see p.&nbsp;45) |url=http://www.mapress.com/phytotaxa/content/2011/f/p00018p127f.pdf |format=PDF}}</ref>

<ref name="Kantvilas et al. 2020">{{cite journal |last=Kantvilas |first=Gintaras |title=Contributions to the lichen genus ''Cresponea'' (Roccellaceae) |journal=The Lichenologist |volume=52 |issue=4 |year=2020 |doi=10.1017/S0024282920000262 |pages=279–285}}</ref>

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[[Category:Lichens of Australia]]

[[Category:Lichens of Australia]]

[[Category:Taxa named by Harrie Sipman]]

[[Category:Taxa named by Harrie Sipman]]

{{Arthoniomycetes-stub}}