''Gyronactis'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of lichen-forming

fungi A fungus (plural, : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of Eukaryote, eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and Mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified ...

in the family

Roccellaceae The Roccellaceae are a family of fungi in the order Arthoniomycetes. Most taxa are lichenized with green algae, although some are lichenicolous, growing on other lichens. Genera , Species Fungorum (in the Catalogue of Life) accepts 47 genera ...

. It has two species. 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 po ...

by Damien Ernst and Anders Tehler in 2014, with '' G. asiatica'' 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( ...

. This lichen, formerly placed in ''

Lecanactis ''Lecanactis'' is a genus of crustose lichens, commonly called old wood rimmed lichen. The genus was circumscribed in 1855 by German lichenologist Gustav Wilhelm Körber, who assigned ''Lecanactis abietina'' as the type species. The mycobiont ...

'', is only known from the

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. The genus name alludes to both its similarity with ''Lecanactis'' and the presence of gyrophoric acid in the

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 ...

. ''Gyronactis'' species have a greyish-green to greyish-brown

crustose Crustose is a habit of some types of algae and lichens in which the organism grows tightly appressed to a substrate, forming a biological layer. ''Crustose'' adheres very closely to the substrates at all points. ''Crustose'' is found on rocks a ...

thallus with and a dark brown

prothallus A prothallus, or prothallium, (from Latin ''pro'' = forwards and Greek ''θαλλος'' (''thallos'') = twig) is usually the gametophyte stage in the life of a fern or other pteridophyte. Occasionally the term is also used to describe the young ...

. The is pale and not carbonised (unlike ''Lecanactis''), and the curved

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 th ...

measure 6–8 by 2–2.5

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

References

Roccellaceae Taxa described in 2014 Lichen genera Arthoniomycetes genera {{Arthoniomycetes-stub