Three overlooked Lecidea species in Sweden

• During the last years, three rarely collected Lecidea species have been found in Skane and Halland, southernmost Sweden, viz. "Lecidea" ahlesii, L. promixta and L. confluentula. The first two are reported earlier from Sweden, but are probably overlooked. L. confluentula is new to Sweden, has been confused with L. fuscoatra, and shown here to be fairly common in western Sweden. All species are depicted and distribution maps are presented for Sweden. A analysis of the ITS region of L. confluentula and L.,fuscoatra shows that despite difficulties in separating the species morphologically there are considerable genetic differences. The generic position of "L." ahlesii has been questioned during the last ten years and both Clauzadea and Mycobilimbia has been proposed. In an ITS analysis of representatives of the family Porpidiaceae showed that "L." ahlesii forms a monophyletic group with Clauzadea monticola, the type species of that genus, outside of Mycobilimbia and Myxobilimbia. "Lecidea" ahlesii is therefore better accommodated in Clauzadea than in Mycobilimbia. Because of the rather limited sampling of species in the DNA analysis, no combinations is made at the time.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Ekologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Ecology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

vet (subject category)