The new species, Mycocalicium llimonae, is described based on specimens collected from cones of Pinus halepensis in the west of the Iberian Peninsula. The new taxon is compared with the other species of the genus Mycocalicium in the Iberian Peninsula, particularly Mycocalicium subtile, and also with other genera in the Mycocaliciaceae.

The new species Lichenostigma svandae is described. It is known exclusively from Acarospora cervina, where it forms black stromatic hyphal strands and black sack-shaped ascomata on the host thallus surface. It is similar to L. elongatum and L. rouxii, but differs in a few characters. A short overview of the known Lichenostigma species is provided.

%Thelidium rimosulum sp. nov. is described from limestone in an industrialized area near Piechcin, north-central Poland (Kujawy). The species is mainly characterized by the small, bicellular ascospores, a well-developed involucrellum and a thin, often isidiate or sorediate, thallus.

Two new lichenicolous ascomycetes, Corticifraga santessonii and C. chugachiana, are described from Lobaria and Nephroma species. The new species are readily distinguished by narrow ascospores and are known from the USA, Canada and Russia. A Table with the distinguishing characteristics of all known Corticifraga species is presented.

%The new saxicolous species P. clercii Messuti & A. W. Archer is described. The following two taxa are reported for the first time from Africa: P. petrophyes C. Knight and P. subventosa var. deficiens A. W. Archer & Elix. A brief description of each species is given together with notes on their chemistry, distribution, ecology and taxonomy.

A new species of lichen, Graphis sundarbanensis, is described from India. It is characterized by ascomata with a pruinose wide-open disc, a laterally carbonized apically convergent exciple and 6–8 locular halonate ascospores.

New collections from inner China have revealed further species in the genus Fuscopannaria: two new species, Fuscopannaria cyanogranulosa P. M. Jørg. and Fuscopannaria obtegens P. M. Jørg. are described and Fuscopannaria subgemmascens Upreti & Divakar is reported as new to Sichuan. A key to the sorediate species of the region is provided. The first fertile specimen of Kroswia gemmascens has been discovered, much further west than previously known, showing the genus to be related most closely to Fuscopannaria despite its gelatinous, homoiomerous thallus. Some collections from the Mulu region in Borneo have added to our knowledge of the difficult lowland taxa of Parmeliella, two of which proved to be new: Parmeliella plumosella P. M. Jørg. and Parmeliella polydactyla P. M. Jørg. & Coppins, both being quite unusual in containing “violet” Nostoc as cyanobiont. There is a surprising number of Asian collections with brightly coloured medullas: red-orange material has been named several times and is correctly referred to as Parmeliella endomilta Vain. The specimens with a yellow medulla are named Parmeliella endolutea P. M. Jørg., nom. nov. A key to the brightly coloured species of Parmeliella concentrated in SE Asia is given. A new corticolous Protopannaria has been discovered in Sichuan, and is described as P. corticola P. M. Jørg.

The new combination Lithographa skottsbergii (Zahlbr.) Fryday & Coppins is made for Enterostigma skottsbergii Zahlbr., described from the Juan Fernandez Islands off the coast of Chile. The species is known only from Chile but its geographical range is here extended to include maritime regions of south-west Chile. The distribution pattern of the Lithographa species with submuriform ascospores is also discussed.

Bacidia coprodes (Körb.) Lettau, until now treated as a synonym of Bacidia trachona (Ach.) Lettau, is resurrected. Morphological, chemical and ecological characteristics place this species close to Toninia in the Ramalinaceae, but we retain it in Bacidia because of uncertainties in the generic taxonomy of this family. Bacidia coprodes is fairly widespread on calcareous and enriched siliceous rock in Europe and eastern North America. In North America the species has also been known under the synonyms Bacidia granosa (Tuck.) Zahlbr. (basionym: Lecidea granosa Tuck.) and Bacidia pammellii (Fink) Zahlbr. (basionym: Bilimbia pammellii Fink). Morphological and chemical features, together with molecular data, suggest that B. trachona does not belong to Bacidia, but rather in the Pilocarpaceae.

In order to examine genetic variation and population structure of the widespread lichen-forming ascomycete Xanthoria parietina from similar habitats, but different sites in Scandinavia, we investigated seven populations in Scania, southernmost Sweden, and compared the results with a corresponding study on Storfosna, central Norway. Sequence variations of the nuclear ribosomal DNA were used as molecular markers, for both a part of the IGS region and the complete ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region. The amount of genetic variability observed was comparable in the two investigations. Divergence between populations in different habitats found in the previous study was also present in this study. Xanthoria parietina is genetically differentiated between habitats with no evidence of restricted gene flow between populations in the same habitat at the present spatial scale, at least at sites along the coast of Scandinavia. Differentiation between habitats is considerable at both study sites, which we attribute to restricted gene flow between habitats, i.e. habitat isolation.

Thalli of Lobaria pulmonaria of different sizes were collected from the trunks of two specimens of Populus tremula. The secondary lichen compounds, stictic, constictic, norstictic, peristictic, cryptostictic and methyl stictic acid were quantified by HPLC and ranked in order of decreasing concentration. There was a highly significant positive correlation between thallus size and the total concentration of secondary compounds, as well as the total content per unit area for specimens from the two sampled trees. According to hypotheses inferring a herbivore deterrent role of secondary lichen compounds, small, juvenile thalli should be more susceptible to herbivores than larger thalli. Thus herbivory might limit survival of young specimens in habitats rich in lichen-feeding molluscs and thereby reduce reproductive success.

The potential spatial distributions of six epiphytic lichen species were assessed in Switzerland (41 000 km2) as a function of various key climatic drivers and forest types using logistic regression models. Cetrelia cetrarioides is ‘near threatened’, Lobaria pulmonaria is ‘vulnerable’, and Graphis scripta, Hypogymnia physodes, Lecanora cadubriae, Letharia vulpina are not endangered according to the Red List assessment based on IUCN criteria. Lichen presence and absence were derived from the SwissLichens database that contains spatially explicit information on both species presence and absence.

The spatial lichen niches are predicted with R2 values between 0·5 and 0·75 and AUC values between 0·63 and 0·94. Model evaluation shows that the models perform well.

Lichenologists reviewed the spatial predictions of lichen species on the basis of their expert knowledge and concluded that parsimonious regression models may suffice for successful prediction of the potential spatial niche distributions of epiphytic lichen species.

Lecidea fuscoatra (L.) Ach. is one of the earliest lichen species described, and is very common and widespread in Europe. Lecidea grisella Flörke, described from Germany, was kept separate at species level in many floras until the 1950s. In recent lichen floras, however, and in the most recent key to the genus (Hertel 1995), L. grisella is no longer accepted at species level, although it is keyed out and recognized by Hertel as L. fuscoatra var. grisella (Floerke) Nyl. The main difference is usually reported to be the thallus colour; brown and shiny in L. fuscoatra, grey and opaque in L. grisella. Some authors, for example Hertel (1995) and Wirth (1995), report that the two taxa have different habitat preferences: L. fuscoatra occurring mainly on acid substrata, while L. grisella is reported to prefer more neutral, often dust-impregnated rock and to be common on roof tiles.

The genus Xanthoparmelia (Vain.) Hale (including Neofuscelia Essl.) currently includes more than 800 species (Blanco et al. 2004, 2005), 21 of which have been recorded in the Iberian Peninsula (Llimona & Hladun 2001). During recent studies of the lichen flora of Castilla y León by the first author, a rare, loosely adnate or vagrant, terricolous Xanthoparmelia has been found at two localities in Burgos province. Although a collection (VAL-Lich 20080) from one of the localities (Fresnillo de las Dueñas) was previously reported as the American species X. vagans (Nyl.) Hale (Pérez-Ortega et al. 2002), this collection has now been redetermined as X. pseudohungarica (Gyeln.) Hale.

Hauck & Huneck (2007) and Hauck et al. (2007) established that lichen secondary chemistry is related to metal absorption in the apoplast of lichens. Depsidones occurring in the medulla of the Mn2+ and Cu2+-sensitive epiphytic lichen Hypogymnia physodes were found to reduce the absorption of Mn2+ and Cu2+ at cation exchange sites (Hauck & Huneck 2007). Several lichen substances, belonging to the depsidones, depsides, anthraquinones, or pulvinic acid derivatives, are known to absorb Fe3+ (Engstrom et al. 1980; Hauck et al. 2007). Occurrence of such lichen substances in lichens of Fe-poor sites, but rarity in lichens from Fe-rich sites suggests that they promote the intracellular uptake of Fe3+ (Hauck et al. 2007). In Acarosporion sinopicae lichens specialized on Fe-rich rock and slag, only two efficient Fe3+ absorbers are known, viz. the depsidone norstictic acid and the pulvinic acid derivative rhizocarpic acid. Their occurrence in Acarosporion sinopicae lichens is attributed to the fact that they reduce the absorption of Fe2+ at cation exchange sites despite their high affinity to Fe3+ (Hauck et al. 2007). The observations by Engstrom et al. (1980), Hauck & Huneck (2007) and Hauck et al. (2007), which were made in experiments with isolated lichen substances, suggest that these secondary metabolites control metal homeostasis in lichens by reducing the absorption of selected metal ions in the apoplast and by promoting the uptake of Fe3+.

In a recent treatment of the Pannariceae of Ecuador, Jørgensen & Arvidsson (2004: 131) pointed out the surprising absence of the genus Fuscopannaria in Ecuador, a genus which is rather common, with many species, in the Pacific Northwest of North America (Jørgensen 2001). The authors claim that, on the western side of the Americas, the genus appears to stop north of Mexico, only to reappear in southern Chile and Argentina. While going through his material, the second author discovered two specimens belonging in this genus from Mexico and Ecuador, which contradicts that statement. Both are typical Fuscopannaria leucosticta specimens (Fig. 1), the type species of the genus originally described from eastern North America (Jørgensen 2001: 684), and fairly widely distributed in warm temperate parts there, and extending as far south as Cuba (Fig. 2).