Porina epiphylla Fee

Porina aff. epiphylla Fée, Essai Crypt. Exot. (Paris): 76. 1825) [1824]. Fig. 14 C Type. FRENCH GUIANA • Leprieur (lectotype: PC, designated by Santesson (1952: 234)). Notes. This taxon is represented by a single specimen (22131 H). Morphologically, it most closely resembles P. epiphylla in possessing lens-shaped to hemispherical perithecia with a slight reddish tinge and similarly wide 7 - septate ascospores. Its ascospores measure (29 –) 30–38 (– 42) × (2.4 –) 2.7–3.8 (– 4) µm (n = 10), and perithecia measure 0.3–0.45 mm (n = 5) in diameter. However, the specimen differs from the current concept of P. epiphylla in having longer ascospores that only partially overlap the reported range of 26–33 × 3–4 µm (Lücking and Vězda 1998; Lücking 2008). Furthermore, the examined specimen has a distinctly coarse, uneven thallus that is not an artefact of the leaf surface, which differs from the minutely uneven thallus described for P. epiphylla. In the mtSSU phylogeny, the specimen was recovered within the Phylloporina clade and more specifically within the Paleotropical P. epiphylla - P. lucida subclade (Fig. 3). Despite its morphological differences, it clusters with a P. aff. lucida 3 specimen (Fig. 14 H) and differs from that taxon by very little mtSSU divergence. Nevertheless, the two taxa overlap only minimally morphologically. Porina aff. lucida 3 possesses considerably larger perithecia (0.5–0.7 mm; n = 19); a much darker reddish periostiolar region; a smooth and substantially larger thallus; and longer, narrower 7 - septate ascospores, measuring (37 –) 39.5–43.5 (– 44) × 3–3.4 (– 3.5) µm (n = 10). Both taxa are associated with the algal haplotype 26: 8 (Figs 4, 5). Overall, this specimen combines morphological affinity with P. epiphylla and phylogenetic affinity with the Paleotropical P. epiphylla - P. lucida subclade but differs sufficiently from the current concept of P. epiphylla to preclude a confident identification. Pending additional sampling and, ideally, type-linked sequences, it is therefore retained as P. aff. epiphylla. Specimens examined. MAYOTTE – Sohoa • Sohoa forest, 12°48'17.2"S, 45°06'47.6"E, alt. 150 m, mesophilic sloping forest, 05 Oct. 2017; Ertz 22131 H (BR).