Chapsa is a genus of lichens in the family Graphidaceae. These lichens form thin, grey-whitish to pale olive crusts on tree bark and are characterized by fruiting bodies that start as slits but expand into round to angular discs level with the surface, each bordered by a pale rim. The genus has a pantropical to warm-temperate distribution, growing on shaded bark in humid lowland or foothill rainforests, with over 60 species that often serve as indicators of undisturbed forest habitats.
Chapsa forms a thin, grey-whitish to pale olive crust (thallus) lacking a true cortex . Its ascomata are chroodiscoid : they start as slits but expand into round to angular discs level with the thallus, each bordered by a pale, partly free excipulum armed with tiny periphysoids . The clear hymenium has branched "Chapsa-type" paraphyses, is iodine-negative (I–), and houses eight hyaline ascospores that are transversely 3–15-septate; a few species develop longer, somewhat muriform spores. Most lack secondary metabolites, though some produce norstictic acid or stictic acid that tint the discs orange-brown.[3]
Molecular work has split off allied genera (e.g., Astrochapsa, Pseudochapsa, Nitidochapsa) for lineages with divergent chemistries or spores, yet all share the chroodiscoid discs, periphysoids and branched paraphyses diagnostic for the group. Over 60 species remain in Chapsa, and discoveries such as C.murioelongata show that diversity is still being revealed.[4]
Ecology
Chapsa has a pantropical to warm-temperate distribution, growing on shaded bark below about 1000m elevation in humid lowland or foothill rainforests; some species extend into montane cloud forests above 2000m.[5] Its preference for moist, mature forest canopies means several species serve as indicators of undisturbed habitat, and surveys in China, Brazil and India continue to uncover narrowly endemic taxa.[4]
↑ Massalongo, A.B. (1860). "Esame comparativo di alcune genere di licheni" [Comparative examination of some lichen genera]. Atti dell'Istituto Veneto Scienze (in Italian). 5 (3): 247–276.
↑ Frisch, A.; Kalb, K.; Grube, M. (2006). "Contribution towards a new systematic of the lichen family Thelotremataceae". Bibliotheca Lichenologica. 92: 1–556.
↑ Lücking, Robert; Álvaro-Alba, Wilson Ricardo; Moncada, Bibiana; Marín-Canchala, Norida Lucia; Tunjano, Sonia Sua; Cárdenas-López, Dairon (2023). "Lichens from the Colombian Amazon: 666 taxa including 28 new species and 157 new country records document an extraordinary diversity". The Bryologist. 126 (2): 242–303. doi:10.1639/0007-2745-126.2.242.
↑ de Lima, Edvaneide Leandro; Maia, Leonor Costa; Barroso Martins, Mônica Cristina; da Silva, Nicácio Lima; Lücking, Robert; da Silva Cáceres, Marcela Eugenia (2019). "Five new species of Graphidaceae from the Brazilian Northeast, with notes on Diorygma alagoense". The Bryologist. 122 (3): 414–422. doi:10.1639/0007-2745-122.3.414.
↑ Sipman, Harrie J.M.; Lücking, Robert; Aptroot, André; Chaves, José Luis; Kalb, Klaus; Tenorio, Loengrin Umaña (2012). "A first assessment of the Ticolichen biodiversity inventory in Costa Rica and adjacent areas: the thelotremoid Graphidaceae (Ascomycota: Ostropales)". Phytotaxa. 55 (1): 1–214 [42]. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.55.1.1.
↑ Wijeyaratne, S.C.; Lücking, R.; Lumbsch, H.T. (2012). "Three new crustose lichen species from Sri Lanka". Nova Hedwigia. 94 (3–4): 367–372. doi:10.1127/0029-5035/2012/0008.
↑ Weerakoon, G.; Jayalal, U.; Wijesundara, S.; Karunaratne, V.; Lücking, R. (2015). "Six new Graphidaceae (lichenized Ascomycota: Ostropales) from Horton Plains National Park, Sri Lanka". Nova Hedwigia. 101 (1–2): 77–88. doi:10.1127/nova_hedwigia/2015/0241.
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