(Arthoniaceae, Arthoniales), A New Lichen Species from South Korea.

A total of 121 species of lichens belonging to the genus have been described to date, most of which have been found in tropical regions. Here, we describe the discovery of a novel species for the first time in South Korea. Until now, was the only species reported in South Korea. Among the 113 specimens collected in this study, we identified and a putative new species, (J. S. Park & J.-S. Hur, sp. nov.). The diagnostic characters of are as follows: apothecia punctate, shortly elongate to branched, small, 0.1-0.2 mm wide, hypothecium hyaline to pale brown and obovate to broadly ellipsoid, muriform ascospores, 29.5-44.6 × 12.2-18.2 μm. The new species was found in Mt. Seokbyeong at an altitude of 790 m on smooth bark. Upon phylogenic analysis, the putative new species, , was separated from other species although the specimens analyzed were clustered with Arthoniaceae in phylogenetic trees based on both the mitochondrial small subunit (mtSSU) sequence and combined mtSSU and nuclear ribosomal large subunit sequences. Our data clearly indicate that this species is a new species belonging to the family Arthoniaceae. To elucidate the taxonomic characteristics of the new species, we provide morphological descriptions and a distribution map.