''Lepra'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

-forming

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

in the family

Pertusariaceae The Pertusariaceae are a family of lichen-forming fungi in the order Pertusariales. Taxonomy The family was formally circumscribed by German lichenologist Gustav Wilhelm Körber in 1846. It contained the genera ''Pertusaria'' and ''Ochrolechia ...

. Although the genus was created in 1777, it was not regularly used until it was resurrected in 2016 following

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

analyses. It has more than a hundred species, most of which were previously classified in genus ''

Pertusaria ''Pertusaria'' is a large genus of warty crustose lichen, crustose lichens in the Pertusariaceae family.Field Guide to California Lichens, Stephen Sharnoff, Yale University Press, 2014, The fruiting bodies are usually modified apothecia that im ...

''.

Taxonomy

The genus was originally

circumscribed In geometry, a circumscribed circle for a set of points is a circle passing through each of them. Such a circle is said to ''circumscribe'' the points or a polygon formed from them; such a polygon is said to be ''inscribed'' in the circle. * Circum ...

by Austrian naturalist

Giovanni Antonio Scopoli Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopolius) (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italians, Italian physician and natural history, naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first ...

in 1777. Martyn Dibben designated ''Lichen albescens'' (='' Lepra albescens'') as a

neotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes ...

for the genus in 1980. In 2015, Kondratyuk and colleagues proposed the new genus ''Marfloraea'' to contain 13 members of the ''Variola'' group (one of four major

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

s identified in ''

'' in the broad sense), with ''Marfloraea amara'' (='' Lepra amara'') selected as the type. The proposed genus was rejected a year later when

Josef Hafellner Josef Hafellner (1951– ) is an Austrian mycologist and lichenologist. He was awarded the Acharius Medal in 2016 for his lifetime contributions to lichenology. Before his retirement, he was a professor at the Karl-Franzens-Universität in Graz ...

and Ayşen Türk explained that the new genus name was

superfluous Superfluous means unnecessary or excessive. It may also refer to: *Superfluous precision, the use of calculated measurements beyond significant figures *''The Diary of a Superfluous Man'', an 1850 novella by Russian author Ivan Turgenev *Superfluo ...

because older available names existed that should have instead been used. Consequently, the genus ''Lepra'' was reinstated to contain species formerly placed in the ''Pertusaria albescens''

species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

Description

Genus ''Lepra'' contains

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 with the following features: disc-like

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

; a hymenial gel that is weakly

amyloid Amyloids are aggregates of proteins characterised by a fibrillar morphology of typically 7–13 nm in diameter, a β-sheet secondary structure (known as cross-β) and ability to be stained by particular dyes, such as Congo red. In the human ...

to non-amyloid; asci that are strongly amyloid but lack clear amyloid structures at their tips; and asci containing one or two single-layered, thin-walled

ascospore In fungi, an ascospore is the sexual spore formed inside an ascus—the sac-like cell that defines the division Ascomycota, the largest and most diverse Division (botany), division of fungi. After two parental cell nucleus, nuclei fuse, the ascu ...

Species

Species Fungorum ''Index Fungorum'' is an international project to index all formal names (Binomial nomenclature, scientific names) in the fungus Kingdom (biology), kingdom. As of 2015, the project is based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, one of three partn ...

(in the

Catalogue of Life The Catalogue of Life (CoL) is an online database that provides an index of known species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. It was created in 2001 as a partnership between the global Species 2000 and the American Integrated Taxono ...

) accepts 105 species of ''Lepra'': *'' Lepra acroscyphoides'' *'' Lepra albescens'' *'' Lepra albopunctata'' *'' Lepra alterimosa'' *'' Lepra alticola'' *'' Lepra amara'' *'' Lepra amaroides'' *''

Lepra andersoniae Lepra may refer to: * Lepra, a UK-based international charity * '' Lepra'', a genus of lichens {{disambig ...

'' *'' Lepra argentea'' –

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

*'' Lepra arida'' – Australia *'' Lepra asiana'' *'' Lepra aspergilla'' *'' Lepra austropacifica'' *'' Lepra bambusetorum'' *'' Lepra buloloensis'' *'' Lepra caucasica'' *'' Lepra clarkeana'' *'' Lepra colorata'' *'' Lepra commutata'' *'' Lepra composita'' *'' Lepra corallina'' *'' Lepra corallophora'' *'' Lepra dactylina'' *'' Lepra dactylinella'' *'' Lepra elatinica'' – Australia *'' Lepra erubescens'' *'' Lepra erythrella'' *'' Lepra excludens'' *'' Lepra flavovelata'' *'' Lepra floridana'' *'' Lepra gedehana'' *'' Lepra graeca'' *'' Lepra hengduanensis'' *'' Lepra huangshanensis'' *'' Lepra hypothamnolica'' *'' Lepra isidioides'' *'' Lepra lacericans'' *'' Lepra laceromarginata'' *'' Lepra leeuwenii'' – Australia *'' Lepra leonina'' *'' Lepra leucopsara'' *'' Lepra leucosora'' *'' Lepra leucosorodes'' *'' Lepra lichexanthonorstictica'' – Brazil *'' Lepra lijiangensis'' *'' Lepra macloviana'' *'' Lepra mammosa'' *'' Lepra melanochlora'' *'' Lepra miniatescens'' *'' Lepra monogona'' *'' Lepra multipuncta'' *'' Lepra multipunctoides'' *'' Lepra muricata'' *'' Lepra neotriconica'' *'' Lepra novae-zelandiae'' *'' Lepra ocellata'' *'' Lepra ophthalmiza'' *'' Lepra ornatula'' *'' Lepra panyrga'' *'' Lepra parathalassica'' *'' Lepra perlacericans'' – Australia *'' Lepra pseudodactylina'' *'' Lepra pseudolactea'' *'' Lepra pseudosubventosa'' – Bolivia *'' Lepra psoromica'' *'' Lepra pulvinata'' *''

Lepra pustulata Lepra may refer to: * Lepra, a UK-based international charity * '' Lepra'', a genus of lichens {{disambig ...

'' *'' Lepra roseola'' *'' Lepra rugifera'' *'' Lepra scaberula'' *'' Lepra schaereri'' *'' Lepra scutellifera'' *'' Lepra setschwanica'' *'' Lepra slesvicensis'' *'' Lepra sordida'' *'' Lepra sphaerophora'' *'' Lepra stalactiza'' *'' Lepra subcomposita'' *'' Lepra subdactylina'' *'' Lepra sublacerans'' *'' Lepra submultipuncta'' *'' Lepra subventosa'' *'' Lepra subvelata'' *'' Lepra superans'' *'' Lepra taiwanensis'' *'' Lepra teneriffensis'' *'' Lepra thamnolica'' *'' Lepra tibetensis'' *'' Lepra trachythallina'' *'' Lepra trichosa'' *'' Lepra tropica'' *'' Lepra truncata'' *'' Lepra tuberculata'' *'' Lepra umbricola'' *'' Lepra variolina'' *'' Lepra variolosa'' *'' Lepra ventosa'' *'' Lepra violacea'' *'' Lepra waghornei'' *'' Lepra wallamanensis'' *'' Lepra wangii'' *'' Lepra wawreana'' *'' Lepra weii'' *'' Lepra wulingensis'' *'' Lepra xantholeuca'' *'' Lepra yunlingensis''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q41040355 Pertusariales Pertusariales genera Lichen genera Taxa described in 1777 Taxa named by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli