''Lecanographa dialeuca'' is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling)

crustose lichen Crustose lichens are lichens that form a crust which strongly adheres to the Substrate (biology), substrate (soil, rock, tree bark, etc.), making separation from the substrate impossible without destruction. The basic structure of crustose lichen ...

in the family Roccellaceae. It is found in

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

and Europe.

Taxonomy

It was first described by Scottish

James Stirton James Stirton (1833, Coupar Angus, Perthshire – 14 January 1917, Glasgow) was a Scottish physician and one of Scotland's leading experts on cryptogamic botany. His investigations in bryology and lichenology earned him a world-wide reputation. B ...

in 1874, with the name ''Opegrapha undulata''. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

specimen was collected from

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

, as part of the ''Challenger'' expedition of 1872–1876.

James Mascall Morrison Crombie Rev. James Mascall Morrison Crombie (1831 – 12 May 1906) was a Scottish lichenologist. Biography Crombie was born in Aberdeen sometime in 1831, and attended Marischal College. He went on to earn his M.A. from Edinburgh University. His firs ...

mentioned the species in an 1877 publication in which he revised and added his own notes about the lichens collected by Stirton. Crombie noted that the species was the same as one that he had named ''Opegrapha dialeuca''. It was later discovered that the name ''Opegrapha undulata'' had already been used by

François Fulgis Chevallier François Fulgis Chevallier (1796, Paris – 1840) was a French botanist whose areas of interest included fungi, ferns and algae. In 1821 he received his doctorate with a thesis on indigenous hemlock in regard to considerations as a poison an ...

in 1824, and consequently, Stirton's use of the name was

invalid Invalid may refer to: * Patient, a sick person * one who is confined to home or bed because of illness, disability or injury (sometimes considered a politically incorrect term) * .invalid, a top-level Internet domain not intended for real use As t ...

. Because Crombie had noted synonymy with his ''Opegrapha dialeuca'', that species epithet replaced the unavailable epithet ''undulata''. José María Egea Fernández and Pilar Torrente transferred the

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

to ''

Lecanographa ''Lecanographa'' is a genus of about 40 species of lichens in the family Lecanographaceae. It was circumscribed in 1994 by José M. Egea and Pilar Torrente, with ''Lecanographa lyncea'' as the type species. Species *'' Lecanographa abscondita'' ...

'' in 1994, when they

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 ...

that new genus as a result of their studies on the family

Opegraphaceae ''Opegraphaceae'' is a family of lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi in the order Arthoniales. It was originally proposed by German lichenologist Ernst Stizenberger in 1862. It fell into disuse, but was resurrected in a molecular phylogenetic ...

. They also proposed that the taxon named ''Opegrapha huneckii'' by Gerhard Follmann and Oscar Klement in 1970, collected from

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 ...

, is the same species as ''Lecanographa dialeuca''.

Habitat and distribution

''Lecanographa dialeuca'' is found in coastal areas of Macaronesia. In 2000, the lichen was recorded from Europe. A single specimen was collected from

Sálvora Island Sálvora Island ( gl, Illa de Sálvora ; es, Isla de Sálvora ) is a small island located on the Ría de Arousa, coast of Galicia, Spain. It belongs to the municipality of Santa Uxía de Ribeira and is integrated in the Atlantic Islands of Galic ...

( Galicia, northwest Spain), an uninhabited island with an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...

. Although it differs slightly in some characteristics from the description given by Egea and Torrente, Graciela Paz-Bermúdez considered the two specimens to represent the same species. The Galician specimen was found on a sheltered

granitic rock A granitoid is a generic term for a diverse category of coarse-grained igneous rocks that consist predominantly of quartz, plagioclase, and alkali feldspar. Granitoids range from plagioclase-rich tonalites to alkali-rich syenites and from quartz- ...

overhang, growing with other lichens such as ''

Dirina massiliensis ''Dirina'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Roccellaceae. All ''Dirina'' species are crustose lichens with a whitish to greyish brown thallus, and live either on rock or on bark–some species can live on both. The partner is ...

'', ''

Lecanographa grumulosa ''Lecanographa'' is a genus of about 40 species of lichens in the family Lecanographaceae. It was circumscribed in 1994 by José M. Egea and Pilar Torrente, with ''Lecanographa lyncea'' as the type species. Species *''Lecanographa abscondita'' ...

'', '' Roccella phycopsis'', ''

Sclerophyton circumscriptum ''Sclerophyton'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Opegraphaceae. It has about 15 species. The genus was circumscribed by German lichenologist Franz Gerhard Eschweiler in 1824, with '' Sclerophyton elegans'' assigned as the type s ...

'', and species of ''

Opegrapha ''Opegrapha'' is a genus of lichenized fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organi ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q21273252 Arthoniomycetes Lichen species Lichens described in 1877 Lichens of Europe Lichens of Macaronesia Taxa named by James Mascall Morrison Crombie