Sarcogyne pusilla Anzi

Sarcogyne pusilla has small apothecia less than 0.6 mm in width with melanized lecideine margin and a disc without carbonized epihymenial accretions usually in early ontogeny. Because of the development of melanized epihymenial accretions on at least its most well-developed apothecia, this species was named S. pusilla. It has not been sequenced but it is probably in same clade as S. cyclocarpa. Sarcogyne pusilla may be confused with small specimens of S. cyclocarpa but differs in having usually a higher hymenium (85–)100–125 µm tall, with variable paraphyses mostly 2–3 µm wide mixed with thinner paraphyses, and wider average ascospores 4.0–5.0 × 2.0–3.0 µm. It occurs in pits or as scattered epilithic apothecia arising from an endolithic thallus and can be both a lichen as well as a lichenicolous fungus.

It can be found growing on calciphyte lichens including Protoblastenia incrustans and various Caloplaca species, often adjacent to where it is growing on rock. It was described from Italy and is known from Asia, Europe and North America. It is known from Czech Republic from a historical collection on limestones in Prokopské údolí in Prague by M. Servít (Servít 1910).

Literature: Servít M. (1910): Zur Flechtenflora Böhmens und Mährens. – Hedwigia 50: 51–85.

Ascomycota → Lecanoromycetes → Acarosporales → Acarosporaceae → Sarcogyne