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Phyllopsora is a crustose to squamulose lichen genus inhabiting the bark of trees in moist tropical forests and rainforests. Species identification is generally challenging and is mainly based on ascospore morphology, thallus morphology and anatomy, vegetative dispersal units, and on secondary chemistry. While regional treatments of the genus have been conducted for Africa, South America and Australia, there exists no study focusing on the Asian and Melanesian species. Previously, 24 species of Phyllopsora s. str. have been reported from major national studies and checklists representing 13 countries. We have studied herbarium material of 625 Phyllopsora specimens from 18 countries using morphology, anatomy, secondary chemistry, and molecular data to investigate the diversity of Phyllopsora species in Asia and Melanesia. We report the occurrence of 28 species of Phyllopsora including the following three species described as new to science: P.sabahana from Malaysia, P.siamensis from Thailand and P.pseudocorallina from Asia and Africa. Eight species are reported as new to Asia. A key to the Asian and Melanesian species of Phyllopsora is provided.

The Ramalinaceae is the fourth-largest family of lichenized ascomycetes with 42 genera and 913 species exhibiting considerable morphological variation. Historically, generic boundaries in the Ramalinaceae were primarily based on morphological characters. However, molecular systematic investigations of subgroups revealed that current taxonomy is at odds with evolutionary relationships. Tropical members of the family remain particularly understudied, including the large genus Phyllopsora. We have generated and collected multilocus sequence data (mtSSU, nrITS, nrLSU, RPB1, RPB2) for 149 species associated with the Ramalinaceae and present the first comprehensive molecular phylogeny of the family. We used ancestral state reconstructions on our molecular family phylogeny to trace the evolution of character states. Our results indicate that the Ramalinaceae have arisen from an ancestor with long, multiseptate ascospores living in humid temperate forests, and that the phyllopsoroid growth form has evolved multiple times within the family. Based on our results using integrative taxonomy, we discuss sister-relations and taxon-delimitation within five well-supported clades: The Bacidia, Biatora-, Ramalina-, Rolfidium-, and Toninia-groups. We reduce six genera into synonymy and make 49 new nomenclatural combinations. The genera Bacidia, Phyllopsora, Physcidia and Toninia are polyphyletic and herein split into segregates. We describe the two genera Bellicidia and Parallopsora and resurrect the genera Bibbya, Kiliasia, Sporacestra, and Thalloidima. According to our new circumscription, which also includes some additional changes, the family Ramalinaceae now comprises 39 genera.

Krogiaborneensis Kistenich & Timdal, K.isidiata Kistenich & Timdal and K.macrophylla Kistenich & Timdal are described as new species, the first from Borneo and the two latter from New Caledonia. The new species are supported by morphology, secondary chemistry and DNA sequence data. Krogiaborneensis and K.isidiata contain sekikaic and homosekikaic acid, both compounds reported here for the first time from the genus. Krogiamacrophylla contains an unknown compound apparently related to boninic acid as the major compound. DNA sequences (mtSSU and nrITS) are provided for the first time for Krogia and a phylogeny of the genus based on 15 accessions of five of the six accepted species is presented. Krogiaantillarum is reported as new to Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico.

Krogiaborneensis Kistenich & Timdal, K.isidiata Kistenich & Timdal and K.macrophylla Kistenich & Timdal are described as new species, the first from Borneo and the two latter from New Caledonia. The new species are supported by morphology, secondary chemistry and DNA sequence data. Krogiaborneensis and K.isidiata contain sekikaic and homosekikaic acid, both compounds reported here for the first time from the genus. Krogiamacrophylla contains an unknown compound apparently related to boninic acid as the major compound. DNA sequences (mtSSU and nrITS) are provided for the first time for Krogia and a phylogeny of the genus based on 15 accessions of five of the six accepted species is presented. Krogiaantillarum is reported as new to Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico.

Species identification in the tropical lichen genus Phyllopsora is generally challenging and is based on ascospore morphology, vegetative dispersal units, thallus structure and secondary chemistry. As several type specimens are in poor condition and difficult to interpret, it is often unclear how these old names fit with the currently used taxonomy. In the present study, we aim to identify species boundaries in Phyllopsora s. str. supported by an integrative approach using multiple sources of evidence. We investigated a substantial amount of herbarium as well as freshly collected material and generated mtSSU and ITS sequence data from most of the described species, including several types. Species delimitation analyses are applied on the gene trees using mPTP and we construct a species tree of both markers with *BEAST, facilitating discussion of species delimitation and sister-relationships. Comparing morphology, chemistry and molecular data, we found that the mPTP analyses split established species repeatedly. Based on our integrative results, we exclude nine species from the genus, resurrect one (P. melanoglauca Zahlbr.), reduce two into synonymy with other Phyllopsora species and describe five as new to science: Phyllopsora amazonica Kistenich & Timdal (which shares the secondary chemistry (atranorin and terpenoid pattern) with P. halei chemotype 1, but differs, e.g., in having smaller areolae that are attached to a thinner, white prothallus, and in having more persistently marginate and less convex apothecia), Phyllopsora concinna Kistenich & Timdal (which shares the secondary chemistry (atranorin and parvifoliellin) with P. parvifoliella and P. rappiana, but differs from both in forming larger isidia, having a white prothallus, apothecial margin paler than the disc, and longer and broader ascospores), Phyllopsora furfurella Kistenich & Timdal (which is here segregated from P. furfuracea based on having a white prothallus and in containing skyrin in the hypothecium (K+ red)), Phyllopsora isidosa Kistenich & Timdal (which differs from P. byssiseda in forming a more crustose thallus with more delicate isidia, and from P. isidiotyla in forming somewhat coarser, less branched isidia) and Phyllopsora neotinica Kistenich & Timdal (a neotropical species here segregated from the now exclusively paleotropical P. chodatinica, differing in containing an unknown xanthone (not chodatin)). Lectotypes are designated for Biatora pyrrhomelaena Tuck., Lecidea leucophyllina Nyl., L. pertexta Nyl., and P. brachyspora Müll. Arg. In total, we accept 54 species in the genus Phyllopsora.

The first German intercalibration exercise for benthic diatoms was conducted to improve the application of the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive for running waters and lakes in Germany. The intercalibration exercise revealed several taxonomic problems. Among others, considerable problems occurred with identifying and differentiating species of the following four groups: (I) Amphora indistincta Levkov and A. pediculus (Kützing) Grunow, (II) Cocconeis placentula var. euglypta Ehrenberg and C. placentula var. lineata (Ehrenberg) Van Heurck, (III) Navicula cryptotenella Lange-Bertalot and N. cryptotenelloides Lange-Bertalot and (IV) N. reichardtiana Lange-Bertalot and N. caterva Hohn & Hellermann. The taxonomic problems that emerged occurred due to both insufficient use of given taxonomic details (by limnologists) and ambiguous species descriptions and documentation (by taxonomists). Thus, we recommend to the applied limnologist to use the mandatory identification literature and to document any ambiguous valves during routine counts. Also, it would be desirable to further investigate certain species by taxonomists and, in general, to provide more basic data with species descriptions or in identification manuals. These measures will improve the use of diatoms as bioindicators and consequently benefit both applied limnologists and taxonomists.