''Ikaeria serusiauxii'' is a species of crustose lichen in the family

Teloschistaceae The Teloschistaceae are a large family of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class Lecanoromycetes in the division Ascomycota. The family, estimated to contain over 1800 species, was extensively revised in 2013, including the creation o ...

. It is found in the

Madeira Archipelago ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

and

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

( Macaronesia), as well as in coastal regions of Algarve and Estremadura in mainland Portugal, where it grows on twigs and branches of trees and shrubs. It was described as a new species in 2020 by lichenologist

Harrie Sipman Henricus (Harrie) Johannes Maria Sipman (born 1945) is a Dutch lichenologist. He specialises in tropical and subtropical lichens, and has authored or co-authored more than 250 scientific publications. He was the curator of the lichen herbarium ...

. The type specimen was found on

Porto Santo Island Porto Santo Island () is a Portuguese island northeast of Madeira Island in the North Atlantic Ocean; it is the northernmost and easternmost island of the archipelago of Madeira, located in the Atlantic Ocean west of Europe and Africa. The muni ...

, on the lower slopes of

Pico do Facho Pico do Facho is the highest peak on Porto Santo Island, with in altitude. Its name comes from , a light beam created by a bonfire, which was used to signal both the local population and Funchal of pirate ships. The bonfire could be seen from Po ...

, at an altitude of about . Here it was growing on fallen pine trees. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

honours Belgian lichenologist

Emmanuël Sérusiaux Emmanuël Sérusiaux (born 3 October 1953) is a Belgian lichenologist. His career, spanning more than four decades, has combined both lichenology research and political aspects of nature conservation. He spent several periods working as a res ...

, "who contributed significantly to the exploration of the lichen diversity of Macaronesia".

Molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

analysis showed its close relationship to the Canary Island endemic ''

Ikaeria aurantiellina ''Ikaeria'' is a genus of two species of crustose lichens in the family Teloschistaceae. Both species grow on twig bark of shrubs and trees. It was circumscribed in 2017 by lichenologists Sergey Kondratyuk, Dalip Kumar Upreti, and Jae-Seoun Hur ...

'', and so it was placed in ''

Ikaeria ''Ikaeria'' is a genus of two species of crustose lichens in the family Teloschistaceae. Both species grow on twig bark of shrubs and trees. It was circumscribed in 2017 by lichenologists Sergey Kondratyuk, Dalip Kumar Upreti, and Jae-Seoun Hur, ...

'', a genus

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

in 2017.

References

Teloschistales Lichen species Lichens described in 2020 Lichens of Europe Lichens of Macaronesia Taxa named by Harrie Sipman {{Teloschistales-stub