The original description stated that the species was dedicated to Costa Rica's Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE, Ministerio de Ambiente y Energia) and its subdivision SINAC, in recognition of their support of the TICOLICHEN project through the prompt provision of work and collecting permits. The authors also suggested that Pyrenula minae was, at the time, the only Pyrenula known with strongly constricted mature ascospores and proposed it as a possible link between the large genus Pyrenula and the small, highly specialized mazaedioid lineage recognized as Pyrgillus. They remarked that the darkened outer septa recall the spores of the mazaedioid genus Tylophoron, while the appearance of young spores recalls certain Lithothelium species, and they noted that its ascospores are more similar to those of Pyrgillus than to those of Pyrenula pyrgillospora, which differs in lacking a red pruina on the perithecia.[2]
Description
The lichen forms thin, olive-brown, corticate patches of thallus (the main lichen body) that can cover an area up to about 10cm (4in) in diameter and lack a hypothallus (a dark marginal zone of fungal tissue). Its perithecia (flask-shaped fruiting bodies) are sessile and conical, occurring singly and measuring about 0.7–1.7mm in diameter, with a central cavity (centrum) about 0.4–0.6mm across. The perithecia are black and may be bare or covered by a thin layer of red-pigmented crystals about 5–10μm thick that partly erodes with age. Each perithecium has a vertical, pale-brown ostiole (opening) about 0.1–0.2mm wide, raised on a papilla up to about 0.2mm high.[2]
Under the microscope, each perithecium has a thick clypeus (a shield-like covering) about 70–120μm thick, a thinner black wall about 10–20μm thick that extends below the hamathecium (tissue between the asci), and a clypeus that spreads widely beyond the perithecium. The hamathecium is inspersed (filled with fine granules) and does not react with iodine (IKI–), and its filaments are unbranched. Each ascus contains eight gray-brown to dark-brown ascospores that are three-septate (3-eu- and distoseptate ), measuring about 23–28 × 11–13μm. The spore compartments ( lumina ) are rounded but unusually wide, with the end compartments often pressed close to the outer wall. The outer septa are strongly darkened, and mature spores are sharply constricted at the median septum. In standard lichen spot tests, the thallus is UV–, while the red perithecial pigment reacts dark red with potassium hydroxide (KOH+).[2]
1234Aptroot, André; Lücking, Robert; Sipman, Harrie J.M.; Umaña, Loengrin; Chaves, José Luis (2008). Pyrenocarpous Lichens with Bitunicate Asci: A First Assessment of the Lichen Biodiversity Inventory in Costa Rica. Bibliotheca Lichenologica. Vol.97. Berlin/Stuttgart: J. Cramer in der Gebrüder Borntraeger Verlagsbuchhandlung. p.114. ISBN978-3-443-58076-6.
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