Gibbosporina revisited: new records from Fiji, Indonesia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, and Queensland, with one species from the Solomon Islands transferred to Pannaria.

Abstract

More than 40 Australasian collections of the genus <i>Gibbosporina</i> have been studied and found to confirm the concepts of the six species previously known from Australia and Papua New Guinea. Perispore morphology is the character most useful for identification. <i>Gibbosporina nitida</i> appears to be the most common species in the area. <i>Gibbosporina elixii</i> and <i>G. leptospora</i> were previously thought to be very rare, known from only two localities each, but they are reported here from several new localities. <i>Gibbosporina thamnifera</i> was previously known from only the Eungella National Park in Queensland and from one locality in Papua New Guinea, but is now known from further localities. New Caledonia is now known to have three species, <i>G. leptospora</i> newly reported. Fiji also has three species, <i>G. leptospora</i>, <i>G. nitida</i> and <i>G. sphaerospora</i> newly reported here, and <i>G. sphaerospora</i> is also reported as new to Papua New Guinea. <i>Gibbosporina phyllidiata</i>, previously known from only the sterile holotype specimen from the Solomon Islands, is now shown to contain pannarin, and is therefore much better accommodated in <i>Pannaria</i> under its new name <i>P. melanesica</i>