''Biatora bacidioides'' is a species of

corticolous This glossary of mycology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to mycology, the study of fungi. Terms in common with other fields, if repeated here, generally focus on their mycology-specific meaning. Related terms can be found ...

(bark-dwelling),

leprose lichen Lichens are symbiotic organisms made up of multiple species: a fungus, one or more photobionts (an alga and/or a cyanobacteria) and sometimes a yeast. They are regularly grouped by their external appearance – a characteristic known as their gro ...

in the family

Ramalinaceae The Ramalinaceae are a family of lichen-forming fungi in the order Lecanorales. First proposed by Carl Adolph Agardh in 1821, the family now comprises 63 genera and about 750 species. Ramalinaceae lichens exhibit diverse growth forms, includin ...

. It was

formally described A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

as a new species in 2003 by the lichenologists Christian Printzen and

Tor Tønsberg Tor Tønsberg (born 1948 in Oslo) is a Norwegian lichenologist who has made significant contributions to the taxonomy, chemistry, floristics, and phytogeography of lichens and lichenicolous fungi. Throughout his career, he has described more t ...

, from specimens collected from ''

Picea orientalis ''Picea orientalis'', commonly known as the Oriental spruce or Caucasian spruce, is a species of spruce native to the Caucasus and adjacent northeast Turkey. Description It is a large coniferous evergreen tree growing to 30–45 m tall or 9 ...

'' forests of north-eastern Turkey. It was recorded from Ukraine in 2018. ''Biatora bacidioides'' is identified by its greyish

apothecia An ascocarp, or ascoma (: ascomata), is the fruiting body ( sporocarp) of an ascomycete phylum fungus. It consists of very tightly interwoven hyphae and millions of embedded asci, each of which typically contains four to eight ascospores. As ...

(fruiting bodies), which look similar to those of ''Biatora beckhausii''. It has specific spores that are long and narrow (16–47 by 2–4

μm The micrometre (Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a unit of length in the International System ...

), and it contains a grey pigment in certain tissue layers. The lichen features light yellowish-green, dot-like growths that occasionally merge. These growths contain

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

s, including

argopsin Argopsin, also known as 1-chloropannarin, is a secondary metabolite produced by many lichen species, such as '' Biatora cuprea'' and '' Micarea lignaria''. Argopsin (also known as 1'-chloropannarin) is a chlorinated depsidone compound first iso ...

and

gyrophoric acid Gyrophoric acid is a tridepside. It is a double ester of the orsellinic acid. It can also be found in most of the species of the lichen genera '' Actinogyra'', '' Lasallia'', and '' Umbilicaria'' . Natural occurrence and biosynthesis Gyropho ...

, which react Pd+ (orange/red) and C+ (red).

References

bacidioides Lichen species Lichens described in 2003 Lichens of Central Asia Lichens of Eastern Europe Taxa named by Tor Tønsberg Taxa named by Christian Printzen {{Lecanorales-stub