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Data Set Maintenance: Data set standard item. Data set author(s): Rambold G. Data set reviewer(s): Lumbsch H. T. (94-12-28); revised; to be published after submission.

Nomenclature: Current taxonomic status: accepted. Taxonomic rank: genus. Number of known taxa within this rank: 2. Megaspora. Megasporaceae Lumbsch (1994); Pertusariineae; Lecanorales.

Taxonomic Literature: Clauzade G. & Roux C., Bull. Soc. Bot. Centre-Ouest 15: 127-141 (1984); Hertel H., Herzogia 2: 231-261 (1971); Lumbsch H.T., Feige G.B. & Schmitz K.E., J. Hattori Bot. Lab. 75: 295-304 (1994); Purvis O.W. & James P.W. in: Purvis O.W. et al. (eds), The Lichen Flora of Great Britain and Ireland, London (1992).

Biogeography: Checklist records: Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Sonoran Desert, Italy, Sweden and Norway, New Zealand, and United States and Canada (continental).

Lichen Photobionts: Primary photobiont present; chlorococcal. Secondary photobiont absent.

Thallus: Crustose, not subdivided parts, granular or rimose. Upper Surface: Grey or white; special structures absent. Lower Surface: Attached by the whole lower surface; special structures absent.

Medulla: Iodine reaction in Lugol's solution negative; not different with or without KOH pre-treatment (euamyloid).

Reproduction Strategy: Only known as sterile, asexually reproducing form or with sexual (and possible asexual) stages. Ascocarps: Apothecioid, orbicular, forming all across the thallus surface, not emerging, becoming adnate. Margin: Indistinct to prominent; external filaments absent. Exciple: White or brownish yellow. Periphyses: Absent. Epithecium: Apical cells brown, green, or olive. Hymenium: Iodine reaction: Lugol’s negative, not hemiamyloid. Interascal Hyphae: Present, distinctly branched, distinctly anastomosed. Hypothecium: White or brownish yellow.

Asci: Tholus thickened, not amyloid; dehiscence lecanoralean; exoascus euamyloid, hemiamyloid.

Ascospores: c. 4 to c. 8 per ascus, ellipsoid, broadly ellipsoid, or globose, 30-60 µm long, 21-42 µm wide, obtuse; septa absent; wall thick, distinctly differentiated into primary and secondary wall, not thickened at the septum, hyaline, in Lugol's Solution negative, wall not ornamented.

Conidiomata: Absent resp. not observed or present; pycnidial; formed all accross the thallus surface.

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