Malmideaceae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

crustose Crustose is a habit of some types of algae and lichens in which the organism grows tightly appressed to a substrate, forming a biological layer. ''Crustose'' adheres very closely to the substrates at all points. ''Crustose'' is found on rocks ...

and

corticolous lichen A corticolous lichen is a lichen that grows on bark.Alan Silverside's Lichen Glossary (a-f), Alan Silverside/ref> This is contrasted with lignicolous lichen, which grows on wood that has had the bark stripped from it,Alan Silverside's Lichen Glos ...

s in the order

Lecanorales The Lecanorales are an order of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class Lecanoromycetes in the division Ascomycota. The order contains 26 families, 269 genera, and 5695 species. Families * Aphanopsidaceae * Biatorellaceae * Briga ...

. It contains eight genera and about 70 species.

Taxonomy

Malmideaceae was created in 2011 to accommodate a group of species, formerly placed in genus ''

Malcolmiella ''Malcolmiella'' is a genus of lichenized fungi in the family Pilocarpaceae. Taxonomy The genus was circumscribed by Czech lichenologist Antonín Vězda 1997, with ''Malcolmiella cinereovirens'' as the type, and only species. The generic nam ...

'' (family Pilocarpaceae), that

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 ...

s showed to be a distinct

lineage Lineage may refer to: Science * Lineage (anthropology), a group that can demonstrate its common descent from an apical ancestor or a direct line of descent from an ancestor * Lineage (evolution), a temporal sequence of individuals, populati ...

and worthy of recognition at the family level. The genus ''Savoronala'', containing the single African species '' S. madagascariensis'', was added to the family in 2013, while another

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

genus '' Kalbionora'' was added in 2017.

Description

Malmideaceae is similar to Pilocarpaceae, but can be distinguished from that family by

thallus Thallus (plural: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. Many of these organisms wer ...

organization and

ascus An ascus (; ) is the sexual spore-bearing cell produced in ascomycete fungi. Each ascus usually contains eight ascospores (or octad), produced by meiosis followed, in most species, by a mitotic cell division. However, asci in some genera or s ...

structure. ''Malmidea'' species have a thallus made of goniocysts–spherical aggregations of

photobiont A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.hypha A hypha (; ) is a long, branching, filamentous structure of a fungus, oomycete, or actinobacterium. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium. Structure A hypha consists of one or ...

e. This characteristic is quite rare in the Pilocarpaceae, only found in the

genera '' Calopadiopsis'' and '' Pseudocalopadia''. Despite the general overall similarity of the ascus structure between the two families, unlike the Pilocarpaceae, Malmideaceae species lack a tubular structure in their asci. Most ''Malmidea'' species are restricted to

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

areas. The genus ''

Zhurbenkoa ''Zhurbenkoa'' is a genus of lichenicolous fungi in the family Malmideaceae. It has three species. The genus was circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribed in 2019 by Adam Flakus, Javier Etayo, Sergio Pérez-Ortega, and Pamela Rodriguez-Flakus, wi ...

'', consisting of three

lichenicolous A lichenicolous fungus is a parasitic fungus that only lives on lichen as the host. A lichenicolous fungus is not the same as the fungus that is the component of the lichen, which is known as a lichenized fungus. They are most commonly specific to ...

fungi from South America and Europe, represented the addition of a new nutritional mode for the Malmideaceae, which until then had consisted of only lichen-forming associations between fungi and

green algae The green algae (singular: green alga) are a group consisting of the Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister which contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/Streptophyta. The land plants (Embryophytes) have emerged deep in the Charophyte alga as ...

Genera

*'' Australidea'' – 1 sp. *'' Cheiromycina'' – 4 spp. *'' Crustospathula'' – 4 spp. *'' Kalbionora'' – 1 sp. *''

Malmidea ''Malmidea'' is a genus of crustose lichens and the type genus of the family Malmideaceae. It was established in 2011 to contain a phylogenetically distinct group of species formerly placed in the genus '' Malcolmiella''. ''Malmidea'' comprises m ...

'' – 52 spp. *'' Multisporidea'' – 1 sp. *'' Savoronala'' – 1 sp. *'' Sprucidea'' – 4 spp. *''

'' – 3 spp. ''Crustospathula'' was transferred to the Malmideaceae from the

Ramalinaceae The Ramalinaceae are a family of lichenized fungi in the order Lecanorales. The family name is synonymous with the name ''Bacidiaceae''. Species of this family have a widespread distribution. Genera *'' Aciculopsora'' *''Adelolecia'' *''Arthr ...

in 2018.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17389021 * Lichen families Lecanoromycetes families Taxa named by Helge Thorsten Lumbsch Taxa named by Klaus Kalb Taxa described in 2011