A new lichen species, Micarea viridileprosa, is described from western Europe, where it is locally very common. This species, which has previously been much overlooked, is corticolous, lignicolous and terricolous and is usually found sterile. Some specimens of the new species were formerly included in Micarea prasina,. The new combination Micarea levicula (Nyl.) Coppins is made for Lecidea levicula Nyl. from Cuba.

Micarea xanthonica sp. nov. is described from the western British Isles, westernmost Norway and the Pacific Northwest of North America. It belongs to the M. prasina group, but differs from related species in possessing xanthones in the thallus.

A new corticolous lichen, Rinodina turfaceoides, is described from the Serra de Estrela (Portugal). It is characterized mainly by the blastidiate thallus, large apothecia covered by a thick, yellow-orange pruina, large Physcia-type ascospores and chemistry. The new species is compared with the closely related but mainly muscicolous, R. turfacea, as well as with other corticolous Rinodina species with vegetative propagules, including R. colobinoides and R. disjuncta. Habit photographs of the new species and illustrations of its ascospores are also provided.

Two new species of lichens are described from the Iberian Peninsula. Halecania giraltiae is the first sorediate saxicolous species known in the genus and has been collected growing on lichens and sometimes directly on rock in localities from northern Portugal to central Spain. Catillaria fungoides, a sorediate, corticolous representative of the C. nigroclavata group, is known from southern Portugal and northern Spain.

Two new species belonging to the lichen families Pilocarpaceae and Ectolechiaceae are described from tropical Africa: Calopadia lucida sp. nov. (Ectolechiaceae) from Tanzania, being similar to C. puiggarii but differing in the UV fluorescent thallus and the pruinose apothecia, and Fellhanera ivoriensis sp. nov. (Pilocarpaceae) from the Ivory Coast, differing from the related F.rhapidophylli by the sorediate thallus and from other sorediate taxa by the combination of pale soralia, dark brown apothecia, and the ellipsoid-bacillar conidia. A key to the nine sorediate species of Fellhanera is provided.

Menegazzia wandae Bjerke from Chile is newly described. It is characterized by lacerate soraliathat are formed on laminar pustules; the sinuous, rather imbricate lobes with brown-black margins, and the presence of thamnolic acid in the medulla. Apothecia are unknown, and pycnidia are rare. The species is known from Chile between latitudes 38°30´S and 46°40´S.

The lichen vegetation associated with areas of late snow-lie in the Scottish Highlands is described and three lichen-dominated communities recognized; from the tops of large boulders, from small pebbles, and from damp soil. The first of these is exclusive to this habitat throughout the Highlands, whereas the other two are restricted to areas of late snow-lie in the Eastern Highlands but are of more widespread occurrence further west. The community from damp soil has affinities with the Solorinion croceae Klement, which occupies a similar ecological niche in Central Europe, but the two other communities are apparently undescribed. The importance of the eu-oceanic climate of the Western Highlands in determining the distribution of these communities is emphasized. The new combination Micarea cinerea f. tenuispora (D. Hawksw. & Poelt) Fryday is made for the anamorph of M. cinerea (Schaer.) Hedl.

Thalli of the lichens Buellia frigida and Xanthoria elegans were collected from five different locations each 5-15 km apart in the Vestfold Hills, Princess Elizabeth Land, eastern Antarctica. A further collection was made from Mawson Station, Mac Robertson Land, eastern Antarctica, 660 km away. DNA was extracted from whole thalli and the ribosomal ITS region amplified by PCR using fungal specific primers. Resulting products were sequenced to gain an indication of whether or not variation was present within populations of lichen-forming fungi from continental Antarctica, and therefore of the availability of genetic resources to react to pressures such as climate change. Three genotypes of B. frigida and two of X. elegans were detected in the Vestfold Hill collections. However, these differed by only one nucleotide position suggesting the presence of relatively little genetic variation, if the ITS region is indicative of the overall genome. Buellia frigida collected from Mawson Station had an identical ITS region sequence to the most common Vestfold Hills genotype, indicating that this species may have a low level of genetic variation across much of eastern Antarctica. In contrast, X. elegans collected from Mawson showed considerable genetic variation from the Vestfolds thalli, differing at 14·2% of nucleotide positions and had an identical ITS region sequence to an isolate from maritime Antarctica 4960 km away. Samples from the Vestfold Hills formed a distinct cluster in a phylogenetic analysis of ITS sequences from a worldwide collection of X. elegans isolates.

The phylogeny of the genus Pertusaria and allied taxa was investigated using nucleotide sequences of the LSU rRNA gene. Sequences from these regions of 15 pertusarialean fungi were aligned to those of three representatives of Agyriales used as outgroup. The alignment was analysed cladistically using maximum parsimony. The Pertusariaceae appear paraphyletic bearing the monophyletic Coccotremataceae on a clade including Ochrolechia and Pertusaria subg. Monomuratae, but monophyly of the family cannot be rejected. The genus Pertusaria is polyphyletic, with the subgenus Monomuratae more closely related to the Coccotremataceae and Ochrolechia than to taxa of the subgenera Pertusaria and Pionospora. Monophyly of the genus Pertusaria is rejected. The monophyly of the subgenera Pertusaria and Pionospora is also rejected. The distribution of selected characters in the Pertusariales is investigated and it is shown that apothecial form and spore wall number have changed in parallel within Pertusaria. The Pertusaria-type ascus is plesiomorphic within the Pertusariaceae and thus cannot be used to circumscribe Pertusaria. The presence of chlorinated xanthones is restricted to Pertusaria s. str