SPECIMEN EXAMINED: AUSTRALIA: Victoria, near Laver's Hill, Hordern Vale road, on dead wood, 17 xi 1962, leg. G. Beaton 43.

APOTHECIA 0.5-1.0 mm diam., gregarious, sessile, superficial on bark. DISC concave, smooth, translucent, pale amber to orange-yellow, margin somewhat inrolled when dry. RECEPTACLE discoid, becoming cupulate when dried, smooth, translucent, pale greyish white. ASCI 32-40 x ca.3 µm, cylindric-clavate, narrowly tapered below with base often forked, apex truncate or broadly rounded, pore not blued by Melzer's reagent, spore number uncertain. ASCOSPORES 3.0-4.0(-4.5) x 0.8(-1.0) µm, hyaline, cylindric to clavate-cylindric, with truncate ends, slightly inequilateral, straight or sometimes slightly curved, nonseptate. PARAPHYSES stout, hyaline, septate in the lower part, 1.0-1.5 µm diam., apex clavate to capitate, 2.5-3.0(-3.5) µm diam., overtopping the asci but unencrusted and not forming an epithecium. MEDULLARY EXCIPULUM composed of interwoven, septate, hyaline, thin-walled hyphae, 1.5-2..O,Mm, diam. ECTAL EXCIPULUM formed of thin-walled but agglutinated angular cells, usually elongated and arranged in irregular rows at a high angle to the surface, 7-12 x 4-6 µm, the outermost cells smaller, with slightly thickened walls coated externally by a thin layer of pale yellowish amorphous matter.

Australasia.

On dead bark and wood.

Previously this collection had been misdetermined as 0. epipora (Nyl.) P. Karsten and this seems to be the basis for the record of that species from Victoria (Beaton & Weste 1979b). In fact 0. epipora is similar but usually has smaller apothecia, less than 0.5 mm diam., smaller asci, 22-26 x 2.5 µm, slightly longer narrower ascospores, 3.5-5.0 x 0.6-0.8 µm and paraphyses apically immersed in a thin encrusting epithecium. Though I have been unable to trace type material of 0. cunninghamii, described from dead wood, Wellington, New Zealand, the present collection agrees in all respects with the original description and I therefore refer it to that species. Though the number of spores per ascus is not clearly seen, it is likely they are 8-spored, as in 0. cunninghamii. The species is evidently very close to 0. gaillardii Saccardo (1889), also on bark, from Venezuela, which has similar asci and paraphyses but slightly shorter broader spores, 2.5-3.0 x (0.8-)1.0 µm. 0. acuum Velen.(1934) is also similar but, according to Svrèek (1954) its asci are smaller, 20-24 x 3.0-3.5 µm and its paraphyses are apically encrusted.

Ascomata sparsa vel aggregate, sessilia, centro adnata, 0.5 -1.5 mm diam., plano-cupuliformia, flavo-ochracea vel vitellina, is sicco subaurantiaca, excipulo ad basim parenchymatico e cellulis hyalinis ca. 9-14 µ diam. contexto, ad marginem e cellulis minoribus prismaticis composito; asci cylindraceo-cuneati, 32-38 x 2.5 -3 µ, octospori; paraphyses vix 1 µ crassae, ad apicem capitatae et ca. 3 µ crassae; sporae bacillares, perexiguae, minute biguttulatae, rectae, continuae, hyalinae, 3 - 3.5 x 0.75 µ.

Eine Art mit ausserordentlich kleinen Sporen, die wohl der Orbilia botulispora Höhn. nahe steht. Bei letzterer sind jedoch die winzigen Sporen würstchenförmig und fast halbkreisförmig gekrümmt, während sie bei der neuen Art genau stäbchenförmig und gerade sind.

ad lignum cariosum in silva, Weraroa, Wellington, 16.9.1919, leg. G. H. Cunningham (no. 1052).