Opegrapha diffracticola

Opegrapha diffracticola is a lichenicolous fungus (a fungus that lives on lichens) in the family Opegraphaceae. Described in 2007 from the Ozarks of midcontinental North America, this fungus grows exclusively on the crustose lichen Bacidia diffracta, forming black, elongated, slit-like fruiting bodies on both the host's thallus and its apothecia. The species is known from the Ozarks and has also been recorded from Vermont and Wisconsin, likely occurring throughout the range of its host lichen in...