Steinera intricata (Øvstedal) Ertz 2017

Ertz, Damien, Poulsen, Roar S., Charrier, Maryvonne & Søchting, Ulrik, 2017, Taxonomy and phylogeny of the genus Steinera (Arctomiales, Arctomiaceae) in the subantarctic islands of Crozet and Kerguelen, Phytotaxa 324 (3), pp. 201-238 : 231-232

Steinera intricata (Øvstedal) Ertz comb. nov.

MycoBank: MB 822690

Basionym: Massalongia intricata Øvstedal , in Øvstedal & Lewis Smith, Lichens of Antarctica and South Georgia, A guide to their identification and ecology (Studies in Polar Research - Cambridge University Press): 246 (2001). Type:— ANTARCTICA. Antarctic Peninsula, Charcot Island, central north-facing slope, on moist moss ( Pohlia nutans ) and soil, 85 m, 22 December 1997, R.I. Lewis Smith 10530 (holotype AAS!).

Notes: This Antarctic endemic has a thallus composed of ascending, terete, ramified, brown lobes, with small, emarginated, convex, dark brown apothecia and with 3–4-septate ascospores (see Øvstedal & Lewis Smith 2001 for detailed description). The species is therefore somewhat reminiscent of Steinera isidiata . Sequences obtained by direct PCR from the thallus of the holotype specimen of Massalongia intricata place the species within the Steinera lineage (Fig. 2–3) justifying a new combination in Steinera . The holotype specimen is very reduced, with only one tiny apothecium visible on the specimen and therefore not examined by us. Therefore, it was not possible to verify if the ascospores were correctly described. The relationship of S. intricata with other non-sequenced and isidiate Steinera species having a brown thallus (e.g. S. olechiana ) needs further investigation. We sequenced the two specimens of ‘ Massalongia intricata ’ (all sterile) recorded from Livingston Island in Søchting et al. (2004) and found them to be the recently described Austrella isidioidea P.M. Jørg. & Fryday in Fryday et al. (2017), a species of Pannariaceae .

‘ Steinera ’ neozelandica C.W. Dodge

Nova Hedwigia 19: 461 (1971).

Synonym: Parmeliella neozelandica (C.W. Dodge) D.J. Galloway & P. James, Lichenologist 16(1): 90 (1984).

Synonym: Degelia neozelandica (C.W. Dodge) P.M. Jørg. & D.J. Galloway , Flora Australia 54: 314 (1992).

Type:— NEW ZEALAND. South Island, Canterbury, Woolshed Hill, February 1958, L. Visch 78 (lectotype CANU, isolectotype BM, not seen).

Description: Galloway & James (1984), Jørgensen & Galloway (1992).

Notes: the species was excluded from Steinera in the revision of the genus by Henssen & James (1982, p. 228), referring it instead to ‘... the Pannaria - Parmeliella -complex’ and was subsequently combined into the genera Parmeliella ( Galloway & James 1984; based on fertile specimens, whereas Dodge’s type in CANU is sterile) and Degelia ( Jørgensen & Galloway 1992) . However, its systematic position is still unclear in the absence of molecular data and further studies might prove it to belong to Henssenia or related genera in Koerberiaceae .