''Sprucidea'' 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 ...

of four

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 family

Malmideaceae Malmideaceae is a family of crustose and corticolous lichens in the order Lecanorales. It contains eight genera and about 70 species. Taxonomy Malmideaceae was created in 2011 to accommodate a group of species, formerly placed in genus ''Malcolm ...

. Similar to the related genus ''

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 ...

'', ''Sprucidea '' is characterized by frequently red

thalli 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 were ...

that contain the

secondary compound 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 ...

norsolorinic acid, but differs in the rod-shaped instead of

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 ...

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 and in the stalked sporodochia as conidiomata. ''Sprucidea'' species are found in

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

areas in South America and Southeast Asia.

Taxonomy

''Sprucidea'' 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 2017 by lichenologists Marcela Cáceres,

André Aptroot André Aptroot (Heemskerk, 1961) is a Dutch mycologist and lichenologist. In 1993 he did his PhD at the University of Utrecht under the supervision of Robbert Gradstein (nl). His dissertation was titled "Systematic studies on pyrenocarpous li ...

, and

Robert Lücking Robert Lücking (born 1964) is a German lichenologist. He is a leading expert on foliicolous lichens–lichens that live on leaves. Life and career Born in Ulm in 1964, Lücking earned both his master's (1990) and PhD degree (1994) at the Univer ...

. '' S. granulosa'' and 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 ...

, '' S. rubropenicillata'', were described as new to science, while '' S. gymnopiperis'' and '' S. penicillata'' were two proposed

new combination ''Combinatio nova'', abbreviated ''comb. nov.'' (sometimes ''n. comb.''), is Latin for "new combination". It is used in taxonomic biology literature when a new name is introduced based on a pre-existing name. The term should not to be confused wi ...

s from the genera ''Malmidea '' and ''

Bacidina ''Bacidina'' is a genus of lichens in the family Ramalinaceae. It was circumscribed by Czech lichenologist Antonín Vězda in 1990, with '' Bacidina phacodes'' assigned as the type species. Vězda included 11 species in ''Bacidina'', which was o ...

'', respectively. The genus name of ''Sprucidea'' is in honour of

Richard Spruce Richard Spruce (10 September 1817 – 28 December 1893) was an English botanist specializing in bryology. One of the great Victorian botanical explorers, Spruce spent 15 years exploring the Amazon from the Andes to its mouth, and was one of t ...

(1817–1893), who was an English botanist specializing in

bryology Bryology (from Greek , a moss, a liverwort) is the branch of botany concerned with the scientific study of bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts). Bryologists are people who have an active interest in observing, recording, classifying or ...

. He was one of the great Victorian botanical explorers.

Description

''Sprucidea'' lichens are corticolous species that inhabit tropical rainforests. They 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 ...

, with or without

isidia An isidium is a vegetative reproductive structure present in some lichens. Isidia are outgrowths of the thallus surface, and are corticated (i.e., containing the outermost layer of the thallus), usually with a columnar structure, and consisting o ...

. The

hypothallus In true slime molds (myxogastria), lichens, and in species of the family Clavicipitaceae, the hypothallus is the layer on which the fruit body sits, lying in contact with the substrate. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek root ''hypó'' ("u ...

and to a lesser extent other parts are often coloured with the red pigment norsolorinone. Apothecia are

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

, often becoming convex in shape. The

s are rod-shaped (bacillary), and

hyaline A hyaline substance is one with a glassy appearance. The word is derived from el, ὑάλινος, translit=hyálinos, lit=transparent, and el, ὕαλος, translit=hýalos, lit=crystal, glass, label=none. Histopathology Hyaline cartilage is ...

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 ...

are on stalked sporodochia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q56235976 Malmideaceae Lecanorales genera Lichen genera Taxa named by André Aptroot Taxa named by Robert Lücking Taxa described in 2017