Update your content

Taxonomic Swap 20250 (Committed on 2017-03-01)

Change based on synonymy in A Cumulative Checklist for the Lichen-forming, Lichenicolous and Allied Fungi of the Continental United States and Canada, Version 21. Here's the citation for the underlying paper:

Lendemer, J. C. 2013. A monograph of the crustose members of the genus Lepraria Ach. s. str. (Stereocaulaceae, lichenized Ascomycetes) in North America north of Mexico. Opuscula Philolichenum 11: 27-141.

Here's an extensive, albeit confusing, quote:

Most readers will know Lepraria finkii as L. lobificans, because that is the name that has been used for this taxon since Laundon (1992) placed the two names in synonymy. As has been discussed elsewhere (Lendemer 2010a), examination of the type specimen of L. lobificans has confirmed that in fact it is conspecific with L. santosii as presently circumscribed (Tretiach et al. 2009) and not L. finkii. Thus I here formally place L. santosii in synonymy with L. lobificans and take up the name L. finkii for the common species previously referred to as L. lobificans.

Lepraria finkii is paradoxically one of the most easily recognizable and easily confused species of Lepraria. The combination of a finkii-type placodioid thallus and production of atranorin, zeorin, and stictic acid are distinctive. Nonetheless, the species is sympatric with nearly every other species known from the continent, and reliance on spot tests alone for identification can potentially lead to confusion.

Only three species are chemically similar to Lepraria finkii in producing atranorin and stictic acid. Lepraria elobata produces these substances as well as zeorin. However, it does not produce the two unknowns mentioned above and it has an aggregate rather than placodioid thallus. The stictic acid-producing chemotype of L. neglecta is chemically similar to L. finkii, and indeed some populations even produce zeorin. However, that species has an aggregate thallus in which the granules develop a distinct pseudocortex. Lepraria leprolomopsis is most likely to be confused with L. finkii as it is morphologically identical and entirely sympatric in North America. The only distinguishing feature of L. leprolomopsis is that it lacks zeorin, and in some cases produces abundant anthraquinones on the underside of the thallus. Further studies with molecular data are needed to elucidate whether L. leprolomopsis is a distinct taxon or merely a chemical variant of L. finkii. It should be noted that the report of L. finkii (sub. L. lobificans) from Fiji by Lumbsch et al. (2011) requires confirmation as those authors did not mention the occurrence of zeorin in the material they examined.

A Cumulative Checklist for the Lichen... (Citation) | Esslinger 2016
Yes
Added by kueda on February 19, 2017 05:38 AM | Committed by kueda on March 1, 2017
replaced with

Comments

@pjd1, this seems like a potential species of conflict between North American and New Zealand lichen taxonomies: http://nzflora.landcareresearch.co.nz/default.aspx?selected=NameDetails&TabNum=0&NameId=4FECA318-B6F0-4417-B0FC-E889B5C5FCA4. I find Lendemer's wording a bit confusing. Is he synonymizing L. santosii, L. lobificans, and L. finkii all under the name L. finkii, or is he maintaining the name L. lobificans but using it to refer to what was formerly called L. santosii, and assigning what had been called L. lobificans to L. finkii? I guess my questions for you are 1) do you guys even recognize the findings of this paper, 2) which if these do you think he meant, and 3) which sense of L. lobificans are you guys using in NZ? If L. lobificans is still a valid name, I think we need to split it into L. lobificans sensu stricto (formerly L. santosii) and L. finkii, but I'm not sure where that would leave the observations from New Zealand.

Posted by kueda about 7 years ago

OK will look into it but I suspect that we would follow Lendemer if only because no one here is working on Lepraria - though we certainly need to have a revision done. I will get back to you.

Posted by pjd1 about 7 years ago

Lendemer, J. C. 2013. A monograph of the crustose members of the genus Lepraria Ach. s. str. (Stereocaulaceae, lichenized Ascomycetes) in North America north of Mexico. Opuscula Philolichenum 11: 27-141.

Lendemer (2013) states that the current broad concept of Lepraria lobificans is incorrect, and that at least for North America (and possibly the Pacific Basin - as they discuss Fiji) Lepraria the name is misapplied. In that area the Lepraria that had been referred to by the name L. lobificans they now refer to L. finkii. Lepraria finkii they note is best recognised by the placodioid thallus and production of atranorin, zeorin, and stictic acid . Lendemer (2013) notes that Lepraria finkii is best distinguished from L. lobificans s.s. by the presence of zeorin but he does not discuss L. lobificans further presumably because it is not in North America (i.e. there is no description of the species and it is not keyed out), and his taxonomic treatment of L. lobificans is given as a 'foot note' in which he synonymizes L. santosii (as a junior heterotypic synonym) into it .

The implication of this paper is that the current application of Lepraria lobificans in New Zealand - based on Galloway (2007) is probably incorrect. As no one is actively revising Lepraria here (in fact as confirmation of that statement, just yesterday I posted material of an unknown Lepraria to Berlin for identification - see https://inaturalist.nz/observations/4733512) for now at least I think the decision to merge New Zealand records of L. lobificans with L. finkii makes sense. However what I am not sure of is whether there are legitimate L. lobificans records on iNaturalist from elsewhere in the world, and if so, whether they would be affected by the merger.

Hope that helps.

Galloway, D.J. 2007. Flora of New Zealand Lichens. Revised Second Edition Including Lichen-Forming and Lichenicolous Fungi. Manaaki Whenua Press. Lincoln.

Posted by pjd1 about 7 years ago

Many thanks for the input. Ok, sounds like this swap is ready to go then, but that I need to make a new L. lobificans record to accommodate the former L. santosii. Oi.

Posted by kueda about 7 years ago

Add a Comment

Sign In or Sign Up to add comments
Member of the iNaturalist Network   |   Powered by iNaturalist open source software |   Documentation for developers