Abstract
Arthonia ulleungdoensis Lee & Hur is described as a new lichen species from South Korea. The new species is distinguishable from Arthonia ruana A. Massal. by its large, rounded and non-punctiform apothecia, taller apothecial section, asci with fewer spores, and larger and permanently colorless spores. Molecular analyses employing mitochondrial small subunit (mtSSU) and RNA polymerase subunit II (RPB2) sequences strongly support Arthonia ulleungdoensis as a distinct species in the genus Arthonia. Overall, 22 Arthonia species are currently recorded in South Korea. A surrogate key is provided to assist in the identification of all 10 taxa of Arthonia/Arthothelium with muriform spores in Northeast Asia.
Highlights
The genus Arthonia is one of the least explored species in lichen taxonomy the genus is comprised of about five hundred species worldwide [1]
A concatenated tree was produced from two different loci, which involved overall 70 sequences (35 sequences for each mitochondrial small subunit (mtSSU) and RPB2) (Table 1)
This concatenation employing mtSSU and RPB2 sequences allows a more comprehensive classification on diverse and comparable Arthonia/Arthothelium taxa to show the position of the new species in molecular phylogeny
Summary
The genus Arthonia is one of the least explored species in lichen taxonomy the genus is comprised of about five hundred species worldwide [1]. South Korea intently studied Arthonia since 2013 and many new species and records, including lichenized and lichenicolous fungi, were discovered [10,11,12].
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