TYPE: ECUADOR. GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS: Santa Cruz Island, coastal cliffs E of Puerto Ayora near Charles Darwin Research Station, on spines of Scutia spicata, 0°44'45"S, 90°17'39"W, 20 m alt., 29 May 2005, Aptroot 63413 (CDS 30168, holotype; ABL, BM, isotypes).
Description. Thallus white to a bit ochraceous, continuous, to 5 cm diam.; cortex absent; medulla white, cretaceous, to 1 mm thick, with crystals; photobiont Trentepohlia; prothallus indistinct. Ascomata numerous, sessile, rounded to usually elongate, often forked, ca. 0.1–0.5 3 0.3–1.0 mm; disc black, sometimes white pruinose; thalline margin ca. 0.2 mm wide of the same color and structure as the thallus; excipulum dark brown, KOH-, to 10 mm wide; epithecium red-brown, KOH-; hypothecium dark brown to black, often extending downwards, upper layer (subhymenium) hyaline to orange-brown, 40–100 mm tall; hymenium ca. 50 mm tall, hyaline; paraphysoids ca. 1 mm wide, anastomosing; asci clavate-cylindrical, grumolosa-type, 8-spored, 70–90 3 15–20 mm; ascospores (3–)4–6-septate, hyaline, clavate, straight, 17–25 3 (3–)5–6 mm, surrounded by a 1–2 mm thick perispore. Conidiomata not observed.
Chemistry. Thallus C+ red (at least around apothecia or apothecium margins), KOH-, PD-, UV+ whitish. Erythrin, gyrophoric acid and methyl gyrophorate detected with TLC.
Etymology. Named after the preference of this species for spines and twigs.
Distribution and ecology. Endemic to the Galápagos. This species is common and abundant on spines of Scutia spicata, twigs of mangroves and twigs of Cryptocarpus pyriformis on the coastal cliffs close to the Charles Darwin Research Station, Santa Cruz.
from: Aptroot, A., Sparrius, L.B. Lagreca, S. & Bungartz, F. (2008) Angiactis, a new crustose lichen genus in the family Roccellaceae with species from Bermuda, the Galápagos Islands, and Australia. The Bryologist: 111(3): 510-516.