''Piccolia'' is a small

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 class

Lecanoromycetes Lecanoromycetes is the largest class of lichenized fungi. It belongs to the subphylum Pezizomycotina in the phylum Ascomycota. The asci (spore-bearing cells) of the Lecanoromycetes most often release spores by rostrate dehiscence. The group is ...

. First

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 Italian lichenologist

Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo (13 May 1824 – 25 May 1860) was an Italian paleobotanist and lichenologist. He was born in Tregnago in the Province of Verona and took a great interest in botany as a young man. Massalongo joined the faculty of med ...

in 1864, it contains ten species. Due to a lack of molecular data, it has not been assigned to an order or family.

Taxonomy

Massalongo established the genus, which was initially

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

, to contain the species '' Piccolia crocea''. He named it for Gregorio Piccoli, an 18th-century naturalist he referred to as "the most eminent investigator of the natural world". In 1927,

Alexander Zahlbruckner Alexander Zahlbruckner (31 May 1860, Svätý Jur – 1938, Vienna) was an Austrian- Hungarian botanist who specialized in the study of lichens. Johann Babtist Zahlbruckner, an earlier Austrian botanist, was his grandfather. From 1878 to 1883 ...

, an Austrian-Hungarian lichenologist, merged it into the genus '' Biatorella'', based on the fact that they shared a number of characteristics: a crustose

thallus Thallus (: 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. A thallus usually names the entir ...

, multi-spored asci (the lichen's spore-bearing cells) and

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 ...

that lack a thalline border. However, Austrian lichenologist

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 ...

separated the two genera out again in 1994, arguing that ''Biatorella'' had been rendered "highly heterogenous" by Zahlbruckner's designation.

Species

The genus ''Piccolia'' includes the following species: * '' Piccolia congolensis'' * '' Piccolia conspersa'' * '' Piccolia crocea'' * '' Piccolia elmeri'' * '' Piccolia haematina'' * '' Piccolia kalbii'' * '' Piccolia nannaria'' * '' Piccolia nivea'' * '' Piccolia ochrophora'' * '' Piccolia wrightii''

Distribution and ecology

While members of the genus are generally found in tropical or subtropical areas, the range of ''Piccolia conspersa'' extends into temperate regions, and ''Piccolia ochrophora'' is found in both North and South America as well as throughout Europe. Several are restricted to islands: ''Piccolia nivea'' to

Santa Isabel Island Santa Isabel (also known as Isabel, Ysabel and Mahaga) is the largest island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split ...

in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

and ''Piccolia kalbii'' to

Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

. Most are

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 ...

lignicolous 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 ...

, living on the bark of trees or stripped wood; some occur (though only rarely) on mosses. The

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.

is a chlorococcoid green alga. ''Piccolia nannaria'' is a

lichenicolous lichen A lichenicolous fungus is a member of a specialised group of fungi that live exclusively on lichens as their host organisms. These fungi, comprising over 2,000 known species across 280 genera, exhibit a wide range of ecological strategies, includ ...

, at least facultatively. It typically starts out growth as a free-living

mycobiont 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.

and becomes lichenised with the

of an unrelated lichen, in this case '' Pyrrhospora varians''.

References

Sources

* * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q10631444 Lichen genera Lecanoromycetes Lecanoromycetes genera Taxa described in 1856 Taxa named by Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo