''Marcelaria'' 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 ...

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

Trypetheliaceae The Trypetheliaceae are a family of mainly lichen-forming fungi in the order Trypetheliales. The family consists almost exclusively of corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichens with an almost strictly tropical distribution. Taxonomy Trypethe ...

. It has three species. The genus was

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 ...

in 2013 by

André Aptroot André Aptroot ( Heemskerk, 1961) is a Dutch mycologist and lichenologist. His primary research focus is on biodiversity, particularly tropical lichens, encompassing systematics, floristic surveys, and taxonomic reviews. A prolific research ...

, Matthew P. Nelsen, and Sittiporn Parnmen, with '' Marcelaria purpurina'' assigned as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, 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 spe ...

. The genus contains species that were previously in the ''

Laurera ''Laurera'' is a genus of 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. The ...

purpurina''

species complex 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 ...

. Species in ''Marcelaria'' contain secondary compounds such as red, orange, and yellow

anthraquinone Anthraquinone, also called anthracenedione or dioxoanthracene, is an aromatic hydrocarbon, aromatic organic compound with formula . Several isomers exist but these terms usually refer to 9,10-anthraquinone (IUPAC: 9,10-dioxoanthracene) wherein th ...

s, and sometimes

lichexanthone Lichexanthone is an organic compound in the structural class of chemicals known as xanthones. Lichexanthone was first isolated and identified by Japanese chemists from a species of foliose lichen, leafy lichen in the 1940s. The compound is known ...

. The genus name honours Brazilian lichenologist Marcela Cáceres. In 2016, Aptroot and Nepi made a formal proposal to conserve the name ''Marcelaria'' over ''Buscalionia''. This decision was necessitated by the rediscovery of type material originally described in 1940 by Maria Cengia Sambo as ''Buscalionia rubra'', which technically should take priority as per the rules of botanical nomenclature. Given the widespread recognition and use of the name ''Marcelaria'', especially for the type species ''M. purpurina'', the authors advocated for its conservation to maintain clarity and consistency in lichenological studies. The proposal was rejected by the Nomenclature Committee for Fungi in 2023, who noted that the authors missed a critical 1953 annotation that identified the type of ''Buscalionia'' (''B. rubra'') as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

with ''Laurera purpurina'', a species central to ''Marcelaria''. Considering this oversight, the relatively short period during which ''Marcelaria'' had been used, and the fact that only three

new combination In Taxonomy (biology), biological taxonomy, a combinatio nova (abbreviated comb. nov. or n. comb.) refers to the formal renaming of an organism's scientific name when it is transferred to a different genus, reclassified within a different specie ...

s would be required if ''Buscalionia'' were adopted instead, the committee recommended against the conservation of ''Marcelaria''.

Species

*'' Marcelaria benguelensis'' – continental southeast Asia *'' Marcelaria cumingii'' – southeast Asia *'' Marcelaria purpurina'' –

neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeog ...

; tropical West Africa

References

Trypetheliaceae Dothideomycetes genera Taxa described in 2013 Taxa named by André Aptroot Taxa named by Sittiporn Parnmen {{Dothideomycetes-stub