''Sirenophila'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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 ...

s in the subfamily Teloschistoideae of 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 has four species with an

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

n distribution.

Taxonomy

The genus was

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 2013 by Ulrik Søchting, Ulf Arup, and Patrik Frödén, with '' Sirenophila gintarasii'' assigned as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

. The generic name ''Sirenophila'', which means "loving mermaids", alludes to the habitat preference this genus: seashore rocks in Australia and New Zealand. The authors included seven species in their original conception of the genus, but ''Sirenophila bermaguiana'', ''S. gallowayi'', and ''S. jackelixii'' have since been transferred to genus '' Elixjohnia'', while ''S. tomareeana'' is now in '' Tarasginia''.

Description

''Sirenophila'' lichens have a crustose

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 ...

; sometimes the edge of the thallus lacks a defined form, sometimes the thllaus comprises distinct lobes. Some species have anthraquinones as

secondary compounds Secondary metabolites, also called specialised metabolites, toxins, secondary products, or natural products, are organic compounds produced by any lifeform, e.g. bacteria, fungi, animals, or plants, which are not directly involved in the norma ...

. The apothecia (fruiting bodies) are zeorine (where the proper exciple is enclosed in the thalline exciple) to biatorine (with a pale or colorless margin). The

ascospore 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 ...

s are polardiblastic (pierced by a narrow channel) with a long

septum In biology, a septum (Latin for ''something that encloses''; plural septa) is a wall, dividing a cavity or structure into smaller ones. A cavity or structure divided in this way may be referred to as septate. Examples Human anatomy * Interatri ...

. Pycnidia are sometimes present. The shape of the

conidia A conidium ( ; ), sometimes termed an asexual chlamydospore or chlamydoconidium (), is an asexual, non-motile spore of a fungus. The word ''conidium'' comes from the Ancient Greek word for dust, ('). They are also called mitospores due to the ...

ranges from

bacilliform A bacillus (), also called a bacilliform bacterium or often just a rod (when the context makes the sense clear), is a rod-shaped bacterium or archaeon. Bacilli are found in many different taxonomic groups of bacteria. However, the name ''Bacillu ...

to broadly

ellipsoid An ellipsoid is a surface that may be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation. An ellipsoid is a quadric surface; that is, a surface that may be defined as the ...

Species

*'' Sirenophila cliffwetmorei'' *'' Sirenophila eos'' *'' Sirenophila gintarasii'' *'' Sirenophila maccarthyi''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q25907182 Teloschistales Teloschistales genera Taxa described in 2013 Lichen genera Taxa named by Ulrik Søchting Taxa named by Patrik Frödén Taxa named by Ulf Arup