Lepra is a
genus of
lichen-forming
fungi in the family
Pertusariaceae. Although the genus was created in 1777, it was not regularly used until it was resurrected in 2016 following
molecular phylogenetic analyses. It has more than a hundred species, most of which were previously classified in genus Pertusaria.
Taxonomy
The genus was originally
circumscribed by Austrian naturalist
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1777.[2] Martyn Dibben designated Lichen albescens (=Lepra albescens) as a
neotype for the genus in 1980.[3] In 2015, Kondratyuk and colleagues proposed the new genus Marfloraea to contain 13 members of the Variola group (one of four major
clades identified in Pertusaria in the broad sense), with Marfloraea amara (=Lepra amara) selected as the type.[4] The proposed genus was rejected a year later when
Josef Hafellner and Ayşen Türk explained that the new genus name was
superfluous because older available names existed that should have instead been used.[5] Consequently, the genus Lepra was reinstated to contain species formerly placed in the Pertusaria albescensspecies group.[1]
Description
Genus Lepra contains
crustose lichens with the following features: disc-like
ascomata; a
hymenial gel that is weakly
amyloid to non-amyloid;
asci that are strongly amyloid but lack clear amyloid structures at their tips; and asci containing one or two single-layered, thin-walled
ascospores.[1]
^Dibben, Martyn J. (1980). The Chemosystematics of the Lichen Genus Pertusaria in North America North of Mexico. Publications in Biology and Geology. Vol. 5. Milwaukee: Milwaukee Public Museum.
ISBN978-0893260361.
^Fryday, A.M. (2019). "Eleven new species of crustose lichenized fungi from the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)". The Lichenologist. 51 (3): 235–267.
doi:
10.1017/S0024282919000185.
S2CID196649792.
Lepra is a
genus of
lichen-forming
fungi in the family
Pertusariaceae. Although the genus was created in 1777, it was not regularly used until it was resurrected in 2016 following
molecular phylogenetic analyses. It has more than a hundred species, most of which were previously classified in genus Pertusaria.
Taxonomy
The genus was originally
circumscribed by Austrian naturalist
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1777.[2] Martyn Dibben designated Lichen albescens (=Lepra albescens) as a
neotype for the genus in 1980.[3] In 2015, Kondratyuk and colleagues proposed the new genus Marfloraea to contain 13 members of the Variola group (one of four major
clades identified in Pertusaria in the broad sense), with Marfloraea amara (=Lepra amara) selected as the type.[4] The proposed genus was rejected a year later when
Josef Hafellner and Ayşen Türk explained that the new genus name was
superfluous because older available names existed that should have instead been used.[5] Consequently, the genus Lepra was reinstated to contain species formerly placed in the Pertusaria albescensspecies group.[1]
Description
Genus Lepra contains
crustose lichens with the following features: disc-like
ascomata; a
hymenial gel that is weakly
amyloid to non-amyloid;
asci that are strongly amyloid but lack clear amyloid structures at their tips; and asci containing one or two single-layered, thin-walled
ascospores.[1]
^Dibben, Martyn J. (1980). The Chemosystematics of the Lichen Genus Pertusaria in North America North of Mexico. Publications in Biology and Geology. Vol. 5. Milwaukee: Milwaukee Public Museum.
ISBN978-0893260361.
^Fryday, A.M. (2019). "Eleven new species of crustose lichenized fungi from the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)". The Lichenologist. 51 (3): 235–267.
doi:
10.1017/S0024282919000185.
S2CID196649792.