Peltastanomala virantra G.W.Saunders & Kraft, 2025

Peltastanomala virantra G.W.Saunders & Kraft , sp. nov.

Type: NEW SOUTH WALES: Coffs Harbour (30 ° 18′17″S, 153 ° 08′53″E), thalli on rock at 4 m off Muttonbird Island , 12 Dec. 2012, G. W. Saunders & K. R. Dixon s.n., (holo: Connell Memorium Herbarium, University of GoogleMaps New Brunswick.

UNB-GWS032778 (fig. 9 A) (cystocarpic); iso: UNB-GWS032779 (tetrasporangial). Type DNA barcode: PP866174 (COI-5 P), PP866280 (rbcL) .

Thalli cartilaginous, growing in dense bushy tufts composed of erect, terete to slightly compressed axes 2–6 cm in height ( Fig. 9 a View Fig ) and arising from a basal tangle of stout haptera and solons ( Fig. 9 b View Fig ). Thalli uniaxial, the axes 400–1000 µm in diameter, consisting of a prominent central-axial filament surrounded by a broad, dense layer of pseudoparenchymatous cells packed with floridean starch grains, this bounded by a one or two-layered inner cortex and a single-layered surface ( Fig. 9 c View Fig ). Central-axial cells 45–55 µm in diameter, each with a single periaxial filament in a rotating sequence ( Fig. 9 c–e View Fig ). Tetrasporangia 18–26 by 5.5–7.7 µm, produced in encircling subapical nemathecia ( Fig. 9 f View Fig ), the tetrasporangia zonate, basally pit-connected to bearing cells and each accompanied by a one or two-celled paraphysis. Tetrasporangia normally smoothly rectilinear ( Fig. 9 f, g View Fig ), occasionally more rotund, irregularly contoured and possibly non-functional in older axes ( Fig. 9 h View Fig ). Gametophytes monoecious ( Fig. 10 a View Fig ), the spermatangia borne singly at the ends of narrow dendroid filaments within thinly bounded cavities 65–80 µm deep that arise from surface cortical cells ( Fig. 10 a, b View Fig ). Procarpy and diploidisation not observed, early gonimoblasts growing radially from a complex of fused auxiliary-cell and adjacent vegetative cells ( Fig. 10 c View Fig ), with maturity the carposporophyte basally placentate within a thick pericarp ( Fig. 10 a, d View Fig ), at maturity forming a palisade layer 100–150 µm deep of filaments bearing single carposporangia beneath an initially narrow ostiole ( Fig. 10 e View Fig ).

Etymology

‘ Vir ’ (Latin for ‘man’) and ‘ antra ’ (Latin for a cavity or cave), a term used in medicine to refer to cavities formed in bones or the hollows of organs like the stomach (and in this species referring to the surface palisade of bizarre caves housing the male gametes).