Pronectria rolfiana Etayo sp. nov. is described on Solorina sp. from Austria and Germany. The new species has been confused with Xenonectriella lutescens, a species hitherto reported from one locality in Bavaria. Scutula pseudocyphellariae Etayo & Triebel is described on Pseudocyphellaria berberina and P. flavicans from southern Chile and Unguiculariopsis fasciculata Etayo on Ramalina stenospora from Florida. The new combination Clypeococcum psoromatis (A. Massal.) Etayo comb. nov. is introduced for the common Mediterranean lichenicolous fungus hitherto named Clypeococcum epicrassum (H. Olivier) Nav.-Ros. & Cl. Roux.

The lichenicolous fungus Lichenostigma rupicolae Fdez.-Brime & Nav.-Ros., collected in France, Spain and Turkey, is described as new to science. It is found growing on the surface of the thalli and apothecia of Pertusaria rupicola, where it forms black patches of radiating plurihyphal strands connecting the fertile stromata. An updated key of the species of subgenus Lichenogramma is included.

A new species, Halecania santessonii growing on Porpidia albocaerulescens, is described from the Russian Far East. It is the second lichenicolous Halecania species known.

The new lichenicolous Llimoniella phaeophysciae, known from Italy, Spain and the USA (Arizona) on Phaeophyscia, resembles Geltingia associata in the subcylindrical asci with uniseriate, shortly ellipsoid ascospores, but is distinguished by several important characters. Gelatinopsis acarosporicola, G. heppiae, Geltingia groenlandiae and Psorotichia terricola (syn. nov. Gelatinopsis leptogii) are considered to be congeneric with L. phaeophysciae, although some of them have elongate clavate and not subcylindrical asci and they are consequently combined in Llimoniella. These five species are distinguished from Llimoniella s.str. by a different excipular and epihymenial pigmentation not reacting with KOH and are treated as the informal L. phaeophysciae group. The new L. placopsidis is described from Placopsis in New Zealand. More complex pigmentation patterns are documented for L. pyrenulae and L. ramalinae. A revised key to the species of Llimoniella is presented. Gelatinopsis ericetorum and G. roccellae are combined in Rhymbocarpus. A redescription of Geltingia associata is given.

The new genus Labrocarpon is introduced for the species Melaspilea canariensis based on the presence of excipular periphysoids. In addition, Buelliella protoparmeliopsis is described from Chile, the twelfth species of the genus. Notes on the two new taxa and related species are provided.

Lecanographa uniseptata is described as new to science. It is characterized by having small rounded to lirellate ascomata, and 1-septate ascospores. The species is known from tropical Africa (Gabon) and tropical America (Guatemala).

Anomomorpha elegans, a new species characterized by lirelline ascocarps, dark reddish brown, pruinose disc, bowl shaped exciple composed of elongate hyphae, hymenium inspersed with crystals, muriform ascospores and salazinic acid in the thallus, is described from India.

Herpothallon biacidum Frisch et al. is described from Queensland, tropical Australia. The new species is characterized by a thick byssoid thallus that is loosely attached to the substratum, globular to claviform to short cylindrical pseudoisidia, a brown to brownish black hypothallus, and by the presence of gyrophoric and norstictic acids. This is the first reported co-occurrence of gyrophoric and norstictic acids in the genus. The differences between H. biacidum and other species containing either norstictic acid or gyrophoric acid are discussed. Herpothallon biacidum is also compared with Cryptothecia eungellaeae. Both occur in north Queensland and have the same chemistry, but the latter has a closely adnate thallus and lacks the dark hypothallus and pseudoisidia. The circumscription of Herpothallon and its distinction from Cryptothecia are discussed.

Acarospora rosulata is revised and reported from North America and Mongolia. Acarospora bullata is not verified as occurring in South and North America and may be conspecific with A. rugulosa.

Buellia nordinii, a new muscicolous or lignicolous species characterized by a blastidiate thallus containing atranorin, apothecia with a fine granular surface, markedly enlarged paraphyses tips and large triseptate ascospores is described from Venezuela. The species grows in very humid situations near the ground in open paramo vegetation at high elevations. It is compared with other known asexually reproducing and triseptate Buellia taxa.

The corticolous lichen Lecanora subviridis de la Rosa & Messuti is described from temperate forests in south-western Argentina as new to science. It differs from other species of Lecanora occurring on bark and wood by containing usnic or isousnic acid. The relationships with the other taxa are discussed.

Chimeras with green algae are reported for the first time from a lichen outside the Peltigerales, viz. the cyanophilous Lichinomycete Phyllopeltula corticola. The species is reported here to be pantropical, based on additional collections from Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Thailand and the Philippines.

We explored lichen species richness and patterns of lichen succession on rough barked Nothofagus cunninghamii trees and on smooth barked Atherosperma moschatum trees in cool temperate rainforests in Victoria, Australia. Nothofagus cunninghamii trees from the Yarra Ranges, and A. moschatum trees from Errinundra were ranked into size classes (small, medium, large and extra-large), and differences in species richness and composition were compared between size classes for each tree species. Nothofagus cunninghamii supported a rich lichen flora (108 trees, 52 lichen species), with the largest trees supporting a significantly higher number of species, including many uncommon species. This success was attributed to varying bark texture, stand characteristics and microhabitat variations as the trees age. Atherosperma moschatum supported a comparable number of species (120 trees, 54 lichen species). Indeed on average, this host supported more lichen species than N. cunninghamii. However, successional patterns with increasing girth were not as clear for A. moschatum, possibly due to the more stable microclimate that this smooth barked host provided. Victorian cool temperate rainforests exist primarily as small, often isolated pockets within a sea of Eucalypt-dominated, fire-prone forest. Many are regenerating from past disturbance. We find that protection of Victoria's oldest rainforest pockets is crucial, as they represent sources of rare, potentially threatened lichen species, and may be acting as reservoirs for propagules for nearby ageing rainforests. Indeed, even single, large old trees have conservation importance, as they may provide exceptional microhabitats, not found elsewhere in the regenerating rainforest environment.

Members of the Cladonia gracilis group of lichen fungi are common terrestrial lichens where morphological features are more similar between members of the C. gracilis species complex and allied species outside the complex than they are between subspecies within the complex. The objectives of this study were to examine whether the Cladonia gracilis species complex is monophyletic, to determine whether morphological similarity is supported by genetic variation, and to examine the utility of the polyketide synthase (PKS) gene for phylogenetic studies among closely related species. Two loci, the ketosynthase region of the PKS gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of nuclear ribosomal DNA, were sequenced and analysed by Maximum Parsimony, Bayesian and haplotype network analyses. Functional differences were also inferred through ITS2 RNA secondary structures and non-synonymous changes in translated PKS amino acid sequences. The monophyly of the C. gracilis complex is supported by 71% bootstrap in the ITS phylogeny, and 92% bootstrap with greater than 95% posterior probability in the PKS phylogeny. Morphological similarity is not always supported by genetic similarity. The PKS gene is less variable than the ITS but the PKS supports species hypotheses that are reflected in the ITS2 RNA model. We conclude that monophyly of the C. gracilis complex can be supported if C. cornuta, C. coniocraea and C. ochrochlora are included in the complex. In addition, C. maxima, C. phyllophora and C. subchordalis are supported as monophyletic species outside the C. gracilis complex. Cladonia maxima may form a separate species and variation among podetial morphology may be explained by convergent evolution.

Coal Nunatak is an ice-free inland nunatak located on southern Alexander Island, adjacent to the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Situated close to the Antarctic continent, it is characterized by harsh environmental conditions. Macroscopic colonization is restricted to micro-niches offering suitable conditions for a small number of lichens and mosses. The extreme environmental conditions place particular pressures on colonizers. Lepraria borealis is the dominant crustose lichen species present on Coal Nunatak, and shows distinctive features in its life history strategy, in particular expressing unusually low selectivity of the mycobiont towards potential photobionts. To assess selectivity, we measured algal DNA sequence polymorphism in a region of 480–660 bp of the nuclear internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal DNA. We identified three different photobiont species, belonging to two different genera. We interpret this strategy as being advantageous in facilitating the colonization and community dominance of L. borealis under the isolation and extreme environmental conditions of Coal Nunatak.