The new species Peltula sonorensis is described from the Sonoran Desert. It is found in several localities throughout the Mexican part of the Sonoran Desert and belongs to a distinct group within the genus Peltula, which is characterized by fairly large (up to 15 mm diam.), umbilicate-peltate squamules, growing individually and having ellipsoid to bacilliform spores.

The lichen Lecanora schistina (Nyl.) Arnold has two kinds of conidia: filiform microconidia and obpyriform macroconidia. Both appear mixed in the same conidioma, the former being much more abundant. Sometimes these conidiomata contain a third type of conidia (microconidia) belonging most probably to a lichenicolous coelomycete living in the conidiomata of the lichen.

Santessoniella rugosa Henssen & Kantvilas is described from south-west Tasmania. The granulose to subfruticose thallus is strongly gelatinous, composed of terete, wrinkled lobes, and bears numerous small, orange apothecia. The species differs from other members of the genus in details of external and internal thallus morphology.

37 taxa are discussed, with 34 being new to Madeira. Of these, Gyalectidium filicmum Müll. Arg., Massalongia carnosa (Dickson) Körber, Physaa tnbaaoides Nyl. and Rinodina intermedia Bagl., are first records from Macaronesia. Ecology and distribution of the species are briefly outlined. Our investigation shows that the proportion of both northern temperate and tropical elements in the lichen flora of Madeira is higher than formerly known.

Lecanora herteliana is described from several collections from hard siliceous sandstone, in typically Mediterranean habitats in eastern Spain. The new species has a whitish thallus containing atranorin and norstictic acid. Its apothecia are mostly black, with a thalline exciple, which is finally excluded, and with a well developed true exciple.Lecanora herteliana is most closely related to L. subcoarctata, and it is discussed in relation to this species and other members of the L. marginata group.

Pilophorus fruticosus Li S. Wang & Xin Y. Wang is described from south-west China. It is characterized by the presence of densely dichotomously branched, partly decorticated pseudopodetia, and by having single, spherical apothecia on the apices of the pseudopodetia. The species grows on siliceous rocks in alpine regions of the Yunnan Province. A detailed description and illustrations are provided. The new taxon is compared with other Pilophorus species.

Micarea hypoviolascens sp. nov. (Pilocarpaceae) is described from an ancient woodland in western Scotland. It is the second species within Micarea known to have the olivaceous, K+ deep violet pigment (Sedifolia-grey) in the hypothecium.

The little known Porina schizospora Vainio is transferred to the genus Strigula as Strigula mediterranea Etayo nom. nov. Strigula mediterranea differs from S. taylorii only in its conidia and its Mediterranean distribution.

Twenty-six taxa of Trichotheliaceae are reported from rock, bark and leaves on Christmas Island in the north-eastern Indian Ocean. Trichothelium oceanicum P. M. McCarthy sp. nov., a common foliicolous species, is described.

In our earlier work, we demonstrated that the oxidases tyrosinase (TYR), laccase (LAC), and a heme peroxidase (POX) occur widely in lichens. Here we report on the occurrence of another oxidoreductase enzyme, quinone reductase (QR) (EC 1.6.5.5). While QR has been reported to occur widely in other organisms, there is currently no information on QR activities in lichens. Here we present a survey of QR activity in 14 species of lichens. Results demonstrate that QR activity is readily detectable in all lichen species tested. However, activities vary greatly, with ‘jelly’ lichens in the genera Collema and Leptogium having the highest activities. QR, LAC and POX are all believed to have a role in extracellular hydroxyl radical production. However, in this study no correlation was found between the activities of these enzymes and the rates at which hydroxyl radicals were produced. Possible roles for QR in lichen biology are discussed.

To clarify deep relationships among species lineages within Bacidia s. str., and to investigate the robustness of the deeper branches, we combined data from three traditionally used RNA-coding genes (nrITS, nrLSU and mtSSU) with two protein-coding genes (RPB1 and RPB2). The multigene phylogeny contained 48 newly generated sequences from the Russian Far East and all Bacidia s. str. sequences from GenBank (131 sequences). We subjected the alignments for the single and concatenated data sets to Bayesian inference (BI) and two maximum likelihood (ML) analyses (RAxML and IQ-TREE). The topologies of phylogenetic trees recovered from BI and ML analyses were highly concordant. The multilocus phylogeny of Bacidia s. str. was congruent with previous results based on nrITS sequences from the Russian Far East but with considerably higher support values for most of the deeper branches. A correlation between the recovered clades and apothecial pigments in the upper part of the hymenium and lateral exciple was observed. Based on morphological and molecular evidence, Bacidia obtecta is described as new to science. It was recovered as the sister lineage of B. elongata. The two species are alike in having up to four enlarged lumina cells along the exciple edge, but B. obtecta differs in the abundant crystals found in the upper hymenium and lateral exciple, and by having spores with fewer septa.