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''Micarea'' is a
*'' Micarea adnata''
*'' Micarea aeruginoprasina''
*'' Micarea alabastrites''
*'' Micarea alectorialica''
*'' Micarea amplissima''
*'' Micarea argopsinosa''
*'' Micarea assimilata''
*'' Micarea austroternaria'' – Australia
*'' Micarea azorica''
*'' Micarea bacidiella''
*'' Micarea bebourensis''
*'' Micarea borbonica''
*'' Micarea boryana''
*'' Micarea botryoides''
*'' Micarea byssacea''
*'' Micarea canariensis''
*'' Micarea capitata''
*'' Micarea ceracea'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea ceylanica'' – Sri Lanka
*'' Micarea cilaosensis''
*'' Micarea cinerea''
*'' Micarea cinereopallida'' – Australasia; South America
*'' Micarea contexta''
*'' Micarea coppinsii''
*'' Micarea corallothallina''
*'' Micarea crassa''
*'' Micarea curvata''
*'' Micarea czarnotae''
*'' Micarea deminuta''
*'' Micarea denigrata''
*'' Micarea doliiformis''
*'' Micarea elachista''
*'' Micarea epiphylla''
*'' Micarea eucalypti''
*'' Micarea eximia''
*'' Micarea fallax''
*'' Micarea farinosa''
*'' Micarea fennica''
*'' Micarea flagellispora'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea flavoleprosa''
*'' Micarea globulosella''
*'' Micarea granuloblastidiata'' – Panama
*'' Micarea hedlundii''
*'' Micarea herbarum'' – Europe
*'' Micarea humilis'' – Australia
*'' Micarea hyalinoxanthonica''
*'' Micarea hylocomii''
*'' Micarea hypoviolascens''
*'' Micarea incrassata''
*'' Micarea inopinula''
*'' Micarea inquinans''
*'' Micarea intersociella''
*'' Micarea isabellina'' – Australia
*'' Micarea isidioprasina''
*'' Micarea isidiosa''
*'' Micarea kartana'' – Australia
*'' Micarea kemmleri''
*'' Micarea laeta''
*'' Micarea lapillicola''
*'' Micarea leprosula''
*'' Micarea levicula''
*'' Micarea lignaria''
*'' Micarea lithinella''
*'' Micarea longispora''
*'' Micarea magellanica''
*'' Micarea marginata''
*'' Micarea melaena''
*'' Micarea melaenida''
*'' Micarea melanobola''
*'' Micarea melanoprasina''
*'' Micarea meridionalis'' – Europe
*'' Micarea microareolata''
*'' Micarea micrococca''
*'' Micarea micromelaena'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea microsorediata''
*'' Micarea minuta'' – western Europe
*'' Micarea misella''
*'' Micarea mutabilis'' – Australia
*'' Micarea myriocarpa''
*'' Micarea neostipitata'' – eastern North America
*'' Micarea nigella''
*'' Micarea nigrata''
*'' Micarea nitschkeana''
*'' Micarea novae-zelandiae'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea nowakii''
*'' Micarea olivacea''
*'' Micarea oreina'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea pallida'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea pannarica''
*'' Micarea parasitica''
*'' Micarea paratropa''
*'' Micarea parva''
*'' Micarea pauli''
*'' Micarea peliocarpa''
*'' Micarea poliocheila''
*'' Micarea polycarpella''
*'' Micarea prasina''
*'' Micarea prasinastra'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea prasinella''
*'' Micarea pseudocoppinsii''
*'' Micarea pseudolignaria''
*'' Micarea pseudomarginata''
*'' Micarea pseudomicrococca''
*'' Micarea pseudotsugae'' – western Europe
*'' Micarea pumila'' – Kenya
*'' Micarea pusilla''
*'' Micarea pycnidiophora''
*'' Micarea queenslandica''
*'' Micarea rubiformis''
*'' Micarea rubiginosa'' – Australasia; South America
*'' Micarea rubioides''
*'' Micarea sambuci''
*'' Micarea sandyana'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea saxicola'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea senecionis''
*'' Micarea sipmanii''
*'' Micarea soralifera''
*'' Micarea squamulosa''
*'' Micarea stellaris'' – Kenya
*'' Micarea stereocaulorum''
*'' Micarea stipitata''
*'' Micarea subalpina''
*'' Micarea subcinerea''
*'' Micarea subconfusa''
*'' Micarea subgranulans''
*'' Micarea sublithinella''
*'' Micarea submilliaria''
*'' Micarea subnigrata''
*'' Micarea subternaria''
*'' Micarea subviridescens''
*'' Micarea svetlanae'' (2025)
*'' Micarea synotheoides''
*'' Micarea taitensis'' – Kenya
*'' Micarea takamakae''
*'' Micarea tenuispora''
*'' Micarea termitophila'' – Brazil
*'' Micarea ternaria''
*'' Micarea tomentosa''
*'' Micarea tubaeformis'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea turfosa''
*'' Micarea usneae'' – Madeira
*'' Micarea versicolor'' – Kenya
*'' Micarea viridiatra'' – Europe
*'' Micarea viridicapitata'' – Mexico
*'' Micarea viridileprosa'' – western Europe
*'' Micarea vulpinaris''
*'' Micarea xanthonica'' – Europe; North America
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 ...
of 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 Pilocarpaceae
The Pilocarpaceae are a family of crustose lichens in the order Lecanorales. The species of this family have a cosmopolitan distribution and have been found in a variety of climatic regions. Pilocarpaceae was circumscribed by Alexander Zahlbruck ...
. The widely distributed genus contains 142 species and new species are described actively. Species in the genus are 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 and their photobiont
A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualistic relationship.
(the non-fungal organism) is a single-celled green alga
The green algae (: green alga) are a group of chlorophyll-containing autotrophic eukaryotes consisting of the phylum Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister group that contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/ Streptophyta. The land plants ( ...
.
Taxonomy
''Micarea'' wascircumscribed 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 Elias Magnus Fries
Elias Magnus Fries (15 August 1794 – 8 February 1878) was a Swedish mycologist and botanist. He is sometimes called the Mycology, "Linnaeus of Mycology". In his works he described and assigned botanical names to hundreds of fungus and li ...
in his 1825 work ''Systema Orbis Vegetabilis''. There have been some taxonomic
280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy
Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme of classes (a taxonomy) and the allocation ...
disputes about the genus. Nowadays, the genus is accepted, although it is paraphyletic
Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...
and in need of further research. '' Micarea prasina'' is 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 ...
of the genus.
Reproduction
Lichenized fungi have developed diverse reproduction strategies. The microlichen genus ''Micarea'' is an excellent model for studying the effects of reproductive traits and environmental factors onspeciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...
because it shows intricate variation in substrate requirements and reproduction modes. Certain ''Micarea'' species are generalists and able to grow on various substrata, while some are specialized and live in strict microhabitat
In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...
s. Some of the ''Micarea'' species are predominately sexual, while some frequently lack sexual structures but bear numerous pycnidia
A pycnidium (plural pycnidia) is an asexual fruiting body produced by mitosporic fungi, for instance in the order Sphaeropsidales ( Deuteromycota, Coelomycetes) or order Pleosporales (Ascomycota, Dothideomycetes). It is often spherical or inve ...
where asexual conidia
A conidium ( ; : conidia), sometimes termed an asexual chlamydospore or chlamydoconidium (: chlamydoconidia), is an asexual, non- motile spore of a fungus. The word ''conidium'' comes from the Ancient Greek word for dust, ('). They are also ...
are produced. The actual roles of the three types of conidia present are not thoroughly understood, but mesoconidia are likely asexual propagules
In biology, a propagule is any material that functions in propagating an organism to the next stage in its life cycle, such as by dispersal. The propagule is usually distinct in form from the parent organism. Propagules are produced by organisms ...
based on, for example, the observation that many of the species are frequently found with only mesopycnidia and no 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 ...
. Recent phylogenetic
In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...
analyses together with ancestral state reconstruction among ''Micarea'' species showed that the shift in reproduction mode has evolved independently several times within the group and that facultative and obligate lignicoles are sister species
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree.
Definition
The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram:
Taxon A and ...
. This supports the assumption that the ancestor of these species was a facultative lignicole. It is presumed that a shift in substrate requirement from bark to wood leads to differentiation in reproduction mode and becomes a driver of speciation in ''Micarea'' microlichens. The case of ''Micarea'' is the first observation that among lichenized fungi reproduction mode is connected to substrate requirement. It is also the first example where such an association is demonstrated to lead to lichen speciation. The main hypothesis behind this phenomenon is that obligate species on dead wood need to colonize new suitable substrata relatively fast and asexual reproduction is a more effective strategy for successful colonisation.
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 ...
accepts 142 species of ''Micarea''.
*'' Micarea adnata''
*'' Micarea aeruginoprasina''
*'' Micarea alabastrites''
*'' Micarea alectorialica''
*'' Micarea amplissima''
*'' Micarea argopsinosa''
*'' Micarea assimilata''
*'' Micarea austroternaria'' – Australia
*'' Micarea azorica''
*'' Micarea bacidiella''
*'' Micarea bebourensis''
*'' Micarea borbonica''
*'' Micarea boryana''
*'' Micarea botryoides''
*'' Micarea byssacea''
*'' Micarea canariensis''
*'' Micarea capitata''
*'' Micarea ceracea'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea ceylanica'' – Sri Lanka
*'' Micarea cilaosensis''
*'' Micarea cinerea''
*'' Micarea cinereopallida'' – Australasia; South America
*'' Micarea contexta''
*'' Micarea coppinsii''
*'' Micarea corallothallina''
*'' Micarea crassa''
*'' Micarea curvata''
*'' Micarea czarnotae''
*'' Micarea deminuta''
*'' Micarea denigrata''
*'' Micarea doliiformis''
*'' Micarea elachista''
*'' Micarea epiphylla''
*'' Micarea eucalypti''
*'' Micarea eximia''
*'' Micarea fallax''
*'' Micarea farinosa''
*'' Micarea fennica''
*'' Micarea flagellispora'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea flavoleprosa''
*'' Micarea globulosella''
*'' Micarea granuloblastidiata'' – Panama
*'' Micarea hedlundii''
*'' Micarea herbarum'' – Europe
*'' Micarea humilis'' – Australia
*'' Micarea hyalinoxanthonica''
*'' Micarea hylocomii''
*'' Micarea hypoviolascens''
*'' Micarea incrassata''
*'' Micarea inopinula''
*'' Micarea inquinans''
*'' Micarea intersociella''
*'' Micarea isabellina'' – Australia
*'' Micarea isidioprasina''
*'' Micarea isidiosa''
*'' Micarea kartana'' – Australia
*'' Micarea kemmleri''
*'' Micarea laeta''
*'' Micarea lapillicola''
*'' Micarea leprosula''
*'' Micarea levicula''
*'' Micarea lignaria''
*'' Micarea lithinella''
*'' Micarea longispora''
*'' Micarea magellanica''
*'' Micarea marginata''
*'' Micarea melaena''
*'' Micarea melaenida''
*'' Micarea melanobola''
*'' Micarea melanoprasina''
*'' Micarea meridionalis'' – Europe
*'' Micarea microareolata''
*'' Micarea micrococca''
*'' Micarea micromelaena'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea microsorediata''
*'' Micarea minuta'' – western Europe
*'' Micarea misella''
*'' Micarea mutabilis'' – Australia
*'' Micarea myriocarpa''
*'' Micarea neostipitata'' – eastern North America
*'' Micarea nigella''
*'' Micarea nigrata''
*'' Micarea nitschkeana''
*'' Micarea novae-zelandiae'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea nowakii''
*'' Micarea olivacea''
*'' Micarea oreina'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea pallida'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea pannarica''
*'' Micarea parasitica''
*'' Micarea paratropa''
*'' Micarea parva''
*'' Micarea pauli''
*'' Micarea peliocarpa''
*'' Micarea poliocheila''
*'' Micarea polycarpella''
*'' Micarea prasina''
*'' Micarea prasinastra'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea prasinella''
*'' Micarea pseudocoppinsii''
*'' Micarea pseudolignaria''
*'' Micarea pseudomarginata''
*'' Micarea pseudomicrococca''
*'' Micarea pseudotsugae'' – western Europe
*'' Micarea pumila'' – Kenya
*'' Micarea pusilla''
*'' Micarea pycnidiophora''
*'' Micarea queenslandica''
*'' Micarea rubiformis''
*'' Micarea rubiginosa'' – Australasia; South America
*'' Micarea rubioides''
*'' Micarea sambuci''
*'' Micarea sandyana'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea saxicola'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea senecionis''
*'' Micarea sipmanii''
*'' Micarea soralifera''
*'' Micarea squamulosa''
*'' Micarea stellaris'' – Kenya
*'' Micarea stereocaulorum''
*'' Micarea stipitata''
*'' Micarea subalpina''
*'' Micarea subcinerea''
*'' Micarea subconfusa''
*'' Micarea subgranulans''
*'' Micarea sublithinella''
*'' Micarea submilliaria''
*'' Micarea subnigrata''
*'' Micarea subternaria''
*'' Micarea subviridescens''
*'' Micarea svetlanae'' (2025)
*'' Micarea synotheoides''
*'' Micarea taitensis'' – Kenya
*'' Micarea takamakae''
*'' Micarea tenuispora''
*'' Micarea termitophila'' – Brazil
*'' Micarea ternaria''
*'' Micarea tomentosa''
*'' Micarea tubaeformis'' – Australasia
*'' Micarea turfosa''
*'' Micarea usneae'' – Madeira
*'' Micarea versicolor'' – Kenya
*'' Micarea viridiatra'' – Europe
*'' Micarea viridicapitata'' – Mexico
*'' Micarea viridileprosa'' – western Europe
*'' Micarea vulpinaris''
*'' Micarea xanthonica'' – Europe; North America
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6827942 Pilocarpaceae Lichen genera Lecanorales genera Taxa named by Elias Magnus Fries Taxa described in 1825