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540 ... Hawksworth, Editor
2002; see Mycotaxon 87: 500-501, 2003), he described 52 species of the 104
species identified (every second one was new for science!) and even noted that
47 further taxa could not be described because of insufficient material or being
in poor condition. It is not surprising that the current monograph published
with co-author Leopoldo García Sancho on lichenicolous fungi mainly from
Chile increases the number of new taxa known from South America even
further. All specialists studying lichenicolous fungi will want to have this new
book with such a comprehensive amount of information in his or her bookcase
as much as they wanted to have his former book.
An international group of lichenologists from Spain and Denmark undertook
two expeditions (in 2005 and 2008) to southern Chile and Argentina. They
explored 60 localities, most of them in the Isla Navarino in the Beagle Channel.
The present study of lichenicolous fungi is based on 696 samples representing
240 species, of which 189 are published in this book and of which six genera
and 60 species are described as a new to science. Still, a further 51 species
remain as undescribed!
In 1999, Galloway & Quilhot (Gayana Botanica 55: 111-185, 1999
[“1998”]) published a checklist of Chilean lichen-forming and lichenicolous
fungi in which they reported only 32 lichenicolous fungi, based mainly on the
collections of Spegazzini, Dodge, and Wedin.
The new species are described in detail and are well documented by 123 (of
132) excellent drawings and photographs, which we have come to expect as
typical for Etayo. The introductory chapters are well written, and introduce the
abiotic factors that influence the area as well as biotic factors (mainly vegetation
types). Separate chapters discuss the hosts, co-evolution, and host specificity of
lichenicolous fungi. A short note promises that a full account of the lichen biota
of the study area will be published too.
Six new genera are described: Atronectria, similar to Pronectria but with
brown, K+ blackish green ascomata; Macrographa, with large ascomata and
three septate spores of unknown affinities; Pseudostigmidium, related to
Stigmidium, but generally with an I+ red hymenium and 3-septate spores,
with five species living on Pseudocyphellaria and Nephroma; Sarcoexcipula,
with a thick and complex perithecial wall and large and septate ascospores;
Umbilithecium, an Arthonia-like genus but with a different hymenial structure
and simples spores; and Umushamyces, similar in habit to Arthonia, but with
Biatora- or Bacidia-type asci.
Sixty new species are described in Arthonia, Atronectria, Bachmanniomyces,
Capronia, Carbonea, Chalara, Corticifraga, Corticiruptor, Dactylospora,
Diederimyces, Endococcus, Leptosphaeria, Lichenochora, Lichenopeltella,
Macrographa, Merismatium, Microsphaeropsis, Minutoexcipula, Muellerella,
Nanostictis, Nectriopsis, Neobarya, Niesslia, Odontotrema, Phaeosporobolus,