SELVA, STEVEN B. Division of Natural and Behavioral Sciences, University of Maine at Fort Kent, 25 Pleasant Street, Fort Kent, Maine 04743 U.S.A.. - Coniocybe gracilescens and Sphinctrinas with 2-celled spores.
When it became clear that the two calicioid lichens described by Henry
Willey in his 1892 "Enumeration of the Lichens found in New
Bedford, Massachusetts" hadn't been heard from since, an
investigation was launched to try and come up with some answers. While
Calicium pallidellum had been transferred by Fink to the nonlichenized
genus Caliciella, thereby precluding its listing on the North American
lichen checklist, Coniocybe gracilescens remains on the checklist as
the only species in the world still assigned to that genus. As one
thing led to another, including a review of the type specimens, the
following results are being reported: Coniocybe gracilescens is, in
fact an "albino" form of the Chaenotheca hispidula with
which it is growing in the type collection; Calicium pallidellum is
not a Calicium or a Caliciella, but a Sphinctrina with 2-celled
spores. Wondering how common Sphinctrinas with 2-celled spores
actually were, the ongoing investigation has uncovered three
others-two apparently known only from their type localities in India
and Finland, respectively, the other currently being described by the
author.
Key words: Calicioid lichens and fungi, Calicium pallidellum, Coniocybe gracilescens, Sphinctrina with 2-celled spores