Chicitaea yueliangshanensis Wei Wu & Shao-Bin Fu 2026, sp. nov.

Chicitaea yueliangshanensis Wei Wu & Shao-Bin Fu sp. nov. Fig. 3 Etymology. The specific epithet yueliangshanensis refers to the Yueliangshan Nature Reserve, where the holotype was collected. Holotype. KUN-L 0095608 Description. Sexual morph: Thallus corticolous, crustose, thin, tightly attached to the substratum, pale gray-green to olive-gray, rough, dull, lacking isidia and soredia, prothallus absent. Apothecia lecanorine, prominent, numerous, sessile, concave, measuring 0.3–1.2 mm diam. Disc black, epruinose, ± flat. Proper margin conspicuous. Exciple uncarbonized. Epihymenium brown, 15–25 μm tall. Hymenium hyaline to reddish brown, not inspersed, 270–400 μm tall, I + blue. Paraphyses simple, unbranched, with colorless apices. Asci 8 - spored, hyaline, claviform to obovate, 175–212 × 45–65 μm. Ascospores broadly ellipsoid, straight or slightly bent (kidney shaped), (40.0 –) 46.5–57.5 (– 62.0) × (16.0 –) 17.5–22.0 (– 26.0) μm (x ̄ = 52 × 20 μm, n = 35), I –, with a single thin wall, c. 1 μm thick. Asexual morph: not observed. Chemistry. Thallus K –, C –, KC –, P –, UV –. TLC: Perlatolic acid, 2 ’ - O-methylperlatolic acid and an unknown lichen substance. Material examined. China • Guizhou Province, Congjiang County, Yueliangshan Nature Reserve, 25°24'37"N, 108°34'47"E, elev. 959 m, 23 October 2023, Bo Liu and Ze Yang, Coll. No. Y 337 (KUN-L 0095608, holotype). Notes. Phylogenetic analysis based on combined ITS and mtSSU sequence place Chicitaea yueliangshanensis in a sister clade with C. assateaguensis, although with low support. The nucleotide comparison revealed a difference of 3.95 % (19 / 486 bp) for ITS and 0.98 % (6 / 611 bp) for mtSSU. Morphologically, C. assateaguensis differs by possessing soredia and lacking apothecia, whereas the new species lacks soredia and has apothecia. Chemically, C. assateaguensis contains only 2 ’ - O-methylperlatolic acid, while the new species additionally contains perlatolic acid and an unknown lichen substance (Lendemer 2013). Among the four species of Chicitaea, C. lecanoriformis is the only taxon with apothecia (Table 2). However, it differs from the new species by producing pycnidia (absent in the new species) and slight genetic divergence in the mtSSU region (0.81 %; 5 / 611 bp). According to lichen substances, both species contain 2 ’ - O-methylperlatolic acid and perlatolic acid, whereas the new species contains an unknown lichen substance (Lumbsch et al. 2007). Different from C. confusa, which has granulose isidia, the new species lacks this feature. Nucleotide comparisons revealed differences of 3.49 % (17 / 486 bp) in the ITS region and 0.65 % (6 / 611 bp) in the mtSSU region between the two species. The new species contains perlatolic acid, 2 ’ - O-methylperlatolic acid and an unknown lichen substance, in contrast to C. confusa, which produces only 2 ’ - O-methylperlatolic acid (Lendemer 2013). These combined morphological, chemical, and molecular differences support the recognition of Chicitaea yueliangshanensis as a distinct species.