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Tidying up the genus Letharia: introducing L. lupina sp. nov. and a new circumscription for L. columbiana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2016

Susanne ALTERMANN ,
Steven D. LEAVITT  and
Trevor GOWARD
Susanne ALTERMANN*
Affiliation:
Whitman College, 345 Boyer Avenue, Walla Walla, WA 99362USA
Steven D. LEAVITT
Affiliation:
Science & Education, The Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Trevor GOWARD
Affiliation:
UBC Herbarium, Beaty Museum, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada. Mailing address: Enlichened Consulting Ltd., 5369 Clearwater Valley Road, Upper Clearwater, BC V0E 1N1, Canada
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Western North America is the global centre of diversity for Letharia, a distinctive and cryptically diverse genus of lichenized fungi belonging to the Parmeliaceae. The genus is characterized by a shrubby, fruticose habit and presence of vulpinic acid. Previous studies using multiple fungal nuclear loci revealed the existence of two distinct species-level lineages within the traditional concept of L. vulpina and four such lineages within L. columbiana. Here we use molecular sequence data in an attempt to settle long-standing taxonomic issues in the genus. Our results confirm the widespread existence within L. vulpina s. lat. of two distinct species-level groups, each forming a mutually exclusive partnership with a separate algal clade within Trebouxia jamesii s. lat. Accordingly, we formally describe the segregate species L. lupina sp. nov. Our results also support the evolutionary independence of four candidate species previously circumscribed from L. columbiana s. lat. One of these lineages, L. ‘gracilis’, has already received species recognition as L. gracilis, while a second, L. ‘lucida’, is epitypified here against L. columbiana s. str. Based on results from species delimitation analyses under the multispecies coalescent model, the two remaining lineages, L. ‘barbata’ and L. ‘rugosa’, also warrant formal taxonomic recognition; however, we refrain from describing these species pending additional studies of diagnostic characters, ecological preference, and distributions.

Keywords

lichen symbiosislichenized Ascomycetestaxonomy
Type
Articles
Information
The Lichenologist , Volume 48 , Issue 5 , September 2016 , pp. 423 - 439
Copyright
© British Lichen Society, 2016 

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