A lichenized family yields another renegade lineage: Papilionovela albothallina is the first non-lichenized, saprobic member of Graphidaceae subfam. Graphidoideae

Abstract

The non-lichenized, monospecific genus Papilionovela Aptroot, originally described from rain forest in Papua New Guinea, is reported here from several locations in Caatinga vegetation in Sergipe, Brazil. Phylogenetic analysis of the nuLSU marker within a three-locus phylogeny, as well as separate analysis of the fungal ITS barcoding marker, place Papilionovela in the Graphidaceae, subfamily Graphidoideae, with strong support. Within that subfamily, the genus clusters within tribe Wirthiotremateae, close to the Acanthothecis peplophora group and Carbacanthographis, albeit without support. We also reanalyzed the phylogenetic placement of two other, non-lichenized fungi previously associated with Graphidaceae, namely Furcaspora eucalypti and Rubikia evansii, and found them to form a separate, early diverging lineage in the family, here formally described as a new subfamily, Rubikioideae. Papilionovela is thus the first non-lichenized, saprobic lineage within the core Graphidaceae (subfamily Graphidoideae), providing a further independent, unequivocal case of delichenization within the order Ostropales.