Special Interest Group Meeting

Cryptic species in the lichen forming fungus Parmelina tiliacea (Ascomycota)

J. Núñez-Zapata, P.K. Divakar, R. del Prado, P. Cubas & A. Crespo, Departamento de Biologia Vegetal II, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 28040 Spain

Parmelina tiliacea (Hoffm.) Hale is a widespread species in Europe being one of commonest epiphytic parmelioid lichens in south western regions. Morphologically it is typically characterized by a white-gray adnate parmelioid thallus, densely isidiate and rarely with apothecia. Phylogenetic analyses of samples from widely separated sites were developed using Bayesian inference of a combined matrix of nuITS and mtLSU rDNA regions. Results reveal polyphyly in the species and the presence of two cryptic lineages within this morphospecies. One of the lineages is restricted to a small region in the south-western lowlands of the Iberian Peninsula while the other is widely distributed in central and southern Europe. Detailed morphological analyses of all samples did not reveal any differentiating characters when non-fertile samples of the two monophyletic groups were compared. However, differences in thickness of ascospores were found in samples bearing apothecia. Parmelina tiliacea was originally described from Germany therefore the newly discovered geographically restricted lineage is proposed as a new species. Due to the frequent absence of apothecia in both lineages molecular data are more reliable for differentiating the two species. The accuracy of several loci genes for identifying the species is discussed and a DNA barcode is proposed for both species.