''Biatora oxneri'' is a species of

corticolous This glossary of mycology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to mycology, the study of fungi. Terms in common with other fields, if repeated here, generally focus on their mycology-specific meaning. Related terms can be found ...

(bark-dwelling)

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

in the family

Ramalinaceae The Ramalinaceae are a family of lichen-forming fungi in the order Lecanorales. First proposed by Carl Adolph Agardh in 1821, the family now comprises 63 genera and about 750 species. Ramalinaceae lichens exhibit diverse growth forms, includin ...

. It is found in the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...

and in South Korea.

Taxonomy

The species was

formally described A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

as new to science in 2015 by lichenologists

Sergey Kondratyuk Sergey Yakovlevich Kondratyuk () (born 17 May 1959) is a Ukrainian botanist specialising in lichenology. His research deals with the taxonomy, floristics, ecology and geography of lichens and lichenicolous fungi. He has worked at the for mo ...

, Laszlo Lőkös, and Jae-Seoun Hur. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

was collected along the Kamenisty stream (

Khasan district Khasansky District () is an administrativeLaw #161-KZ and municipalLaw #187-KZ district (raion), one of the twenty-two in Primorsky Krai, Russia. It is located in the southwest of the krai, wedged between the Tumen River and the Peter the Great G ...

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai, informally known as Primorye, is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krais of Russia, krai) of Russia, part of the Far Eastern Federal District in the Russian Far East. The types of inhabited localities in Russia, ...

); there, in a

deciduous forest In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flo ...

, the lichen was found growing on the bark of a deciduous tree, closely associated with an individual of '' Ochrolechia pallescens'' that had itself been damaged by '' Opegrapha verseghyklarae''. The

species epithet Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany) ...

honours Ukrainian lichenologist Alfred M. Oxner (1898–1973), who, according to the authors, "made important contributions to our current knowledge of Eastern and Northern Asian lichens". Kondratyuk and colleagues initially placed the

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

in genus '' Ivanpisutia''. Christian Printzen and Sonja Kistenich transferred the taxon to ''

Biatora ''Biatora'' is a genus of lichens in the family Ramalinaceae. Originally circumscribed in 1817,Fries EM, Sandberg A. (1817). ''Lichenum dianome nova''. Lund. the genus consists of crustose and squamulose lichens with green algal photobionts, bi ...

'' in 2018 following a comprehensive

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

s-based reorganisation of the family

Description

''Biatora oxneri'' has a whitish to whitish-grey crustose

thallus Thallus (: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. A thallus usually names the entir ...

that is across, although neighbouring thalli may coalesce to form larger spots. A thin (>0.2 mm wide)

hypothallus In true slime molds (myxogastria), lichens, and in species of the family Clavicipitaceae, the hypothallus is the layer on which the fruit body sits, lying in contact with the substrate. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek root ''hypó'' ("un ...

is observed where the thallus border another crustose lichen. The

apothecia An ascocarp, or ascoma (: ascomata), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. As ...

, which are in a transitional state between biatorine- and byssoid-type, are closely attached to the thallus and measure 0.2–0.9 mm in diameter. The apothecial disc ranges in colour from dark violet to blackish violet to ink blue; it is initially concave or flat, later becoming convex. The asci are of the "Lecanorine"-type and contain eight spores. These

ascospore In fungi, an ascospore is the sexual spore formed inside an ascus—the sac-like cell that defines the division Ascomycota, the largest and most diverse Division (botany), division of fungi. After two parental cell nucleus, nuclei fuse, the ascu ...

s have a shape described as narrowly

bacilliform Bacterial cellular morphologies are the shapes that are characteristic of various types of bacteria and often key to their identification. Their direct examination under a light microscope enables the classification of these bacteria (and archaea ...

to somewhat lens-like, and measure 8–13 by 2–3.2

μm The micrometre (Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a unit of length in the International System ...

. All of the standard chemical spot tests on the thallus are negative, while the N-test (35% solution of

nitric acid Nitric acid is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but samples tend to acquire a yellow cast over time due to decomposition into nitrogen oxide, oxides of nitrogen. Most com ...

) produces a violet-purple colour on the

hymenium The hymenium is the tissue layer on the hymenophore of a fungal fruiting body where the cells develop into basidia or asci, which produce spores. In some species all of the cells of the hymenium develop into basidia or asci, while in oth ...

and subhymenium. '' Biatora pacifica'', described as new to science in 2016 from

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, p=səxɐˈlʲin) is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. An islan ...

, is similar in appearance to ''B. oxneri'', and the authors suggest that it may be an esorediate version (i.e., lacking

soredia Soredia are common reproduction, reproductive structures of lichens. Lichens asexual reproduction, reproduce asexually by employing simple fragmentation and production of soredia and isidia. Soredia are powdery propagules composed of fungus, fung ...

) of this species.

Habitat and distribution

The precise range of ''Biatora oxneri'' is not well understood, as it is known only from a few scattered and isolated collections in Sakhalin,

Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( ) is the largest city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China–Russia border, at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, about north of Vladivostok. As of the 2021 Russian c ...

, and Primorsky regions, all in the

. In 2018 it was recorded from

Jeju Island Jeju Island (Jeju language, Jeju/) is South Korea's largest island, covering an area of , which is 1.83% of the total area of the country. Alongside outlying islands, it is part of Jeju Province and makes up the majority of the province. The i ...

in South Korea, where it was growing on smooth bark in close association with '' Mikhtomia gordejevii''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q59937699 oxneri Lichen species Lichens described in 2015 Lichens of Asia Taxa named by Sergey Kondratyuk Lichens of the Russian Far East Taxa named by Jae-Seoun Hur Taxa named by László Sándor Lőkös