Species delimitation in taxonomically difficult lichen-forming fungi: An example from morphologically and chemically diverse Xanthoparmelia (Parmeliaceae) in North America

DNA barcode identification of lichen-forming fungal species in the Rhizoplaca melanophthalma species-complex (Lecanorales, Lecanoraceae), including five new species

“…In spite of the limitations in delimiting taxa using molecular data, the effective use of genetic data appears to be essential to appropriately and practically identify natural groups in some phenotypically cryptic lichen-forming fungal lineages (Divakar et al 2010b;Leavitt et al 2011b;Leavitt et al 2011c;Molina et al 2011b;Pino-Bodas et al 2011;Pino-Bodas et al 2012), including R. melanophthalma s.l. This does not preclude the fact that additional studies investigating morphological and chemical characters may potentially identify independent characters, or combinations of characters, supporting species circumscribed using molecular data.…”

“…Character evolution in lichens is still poorly understood, leading to potentially confounding morphological/chemical taxonomic features (e.g. Leavitt et al 2011b;Leavitt et al 2011c;Pino-Bodas et al 2011;Pérez-Ortega et al 2012;PinoBodas et al 2012). While we are strong advocates for the application of independent data types (i.e.…”

The Dynamic Discipline of Species Delimitation: Progress Toward Effectively Recognizing Species Boundaries in Natural Populations

“…2.1; Leavitt et al 2011b. In some cases, as many as eight traditionally circumscribed Xanthoparmelia species were recovered in a single species-level genetic group (Leavitt et al 2011c). High levels of intraspecific phenotypic variation have been observed in a number of other genera in Parmeliaceae, including Bryoria (Velmala et al 2009), Cetraria (Pérez-Ortega et al 2012, Vulpicida (Mark et al 2012), and others.…”

The Diversity of Lichenised Fungi: Ecosystem Functions and Ecosystem Services

“…According to Boonpragob et al (2012), the species number of lichens worldwide may be estimated of about 28,000 taxa. When considering the range of intraspecific genetic diversity and cryptic species, which is not included in this estimation, this number is even much higher (Leavitt et al 2011;Lumbsch and Leavitt 2011). Traditionally, different lichen morphotypes have been regarded as distinct species, based on typical phenotypic and chemical traits, as well as on anatomical characters of the fungal partner.…”