Malmidea eeuuae
Malmidea eeuuae is a corticolous, crustose lichen in the family Malmideaceae. It was described in 2011 from Khao Yai National Park in north-eastern Thailand. The species has a finely warted thallus and non-septate, halonate ascospores, and it differs from M. coralliformis by its larger spores.Taxonomy
The species was introduced as Malmidea eeuuae by Klaus Kalb in 2011 within a study on Malmidea and the family Malmideaceae. The holotype was collected in a very disturbed tropical rainforest near the students' lodges in Khao Yai National Park, Nakhon Ratchasima province, at about 760 m elevation. The specific name honours Jutarat Sutjaritturakan, a Thai lichenologist.Description
The thallus is thin, crust-like and continuous on bark, densely warted with warts 0.1–0.15 mm high and 0.1–0.25 mm wide; soredia and isidia are absent. The medulla is cream-coloured and reacts potassium hydroxide -positive. The is . Apothecia are, rounded to slightly, 0.2–0.5 mm across and 0.1–0.2 mm high; the is plane to slightly convex and light leather-brown to tawny, with a thin margin of the granifera type that starts entire and prominent but becomes slightly recurved and warty; the margin is 80–130 μm thick and whitish to cream. The is hyaline at the periphery and internally shows a medullary layer of loosely arranged, periclinal hyphae with constricted septa, 30–50 μm wide, bearing yellowish to ochraceous-yellow hydrophobic granules that partly dissolve in KOH with a yellowish to greenish-yellow reaction. The is about 50 μm high and chocolate- to olive-brown; the is 50–75 μm high, brown and K–; the hymenium is 100–120 μm high and hyaline. Asci measure 55–70 × 16–20 μm. Ascospores number 4–6 per ascus, are colourless, ellipsoid, non-septate and, typically 16–20 × 8–11 μm with a 1–1.5 μm. Reported chemistry includes xantholepinone G, contortin, concontortin and three unknown xantholepinones.Habitat and distribution
Known from Khao Yai National Park, Malmidea eeuuae grows on tree bark in very disturbed tropical rainforest around 760 m elevation, near the students' lodges at Ban Krong Kaew.