Fellhanera

Fellhanera was established by Antonín Vězda in 1986 for a set of mainly leaf-dwelling (foliicolous) lichens with hyaline (colourless), septate ascospores (spores divided by cross-walls) that had been scattered across the catch-all genera Bacidia, Catillaria, and Lopadium. Vězda had earlier treated the group informally as Lobaca, but as ascus structure became a key criterion in the 1980s he split the material into two groups: species with a Byssoloma-type apical apparatus (ascus-tip structure) were placed in Pilocarpaceae (since synonymized with Ectolechiaceae) as Fellhanera, while those with Sporopodium-type asci (and ; small, curved asexual structures) were moved to ectolechiaceous genera (in or near Ectolechiaceae). He designated Fellhanera fuscatula (originally described as Patellaria fuscatula by Johannes Müller Argoviensis in 1881) as the type species and made 17 new combinations at publication. In Vězda's circumscription, Fellhanera is by apothecia (pale-margined fruiting bodies); a exciple (a brick-wall–like rim tissue); thin paraphyses that are simple to branched and often anastomosing (joining); and asci sheathed in a thin amyloid gel with an amyloid (apical dome) of the Byssoloma type. The ascospores are colourless, ellipsoid (egg-shaped), typically 1- or 3-septate, only rarely weakly (with a few longitudinal walls); the conidiomata are and wart-like, producing simple (pear-shaped) conidia. Vězda separated Fellhanera from the genera Byssoloma and Byssolecania chiefly by the : in Fellhanera it is paraplectenchymatous, whereas many Byssoloma species have a (cottony), often crystal-rich exciple that sometimes only becomes clear after treatment with potassium hydroxide solution, so superficial similarity can be misleading. The genus name is an anagramhonouring Josef Hafellner, whose studies of ascus morphology underpinned this re-organisation; as delimited by Vězda, all included species were foliicolous lichen. ==Description==

Fellhanera species form a crust-like thallus that adheres tightly to the substrate but never develops a true protective skin (). When young the surface usually looks powdery or scurfy, ranging from whitish through grey-green to dull ochre, and may break into shallow wart-like bumps or irregular cracks as it matures. Some species produce minute soredia or —tiny, easily detached granules that propagate the lichen vegetatively—yet even these remain embedded in the soft, corticolous crust. The algal partner () is a simple green cell about 5–12 micrometres (μm) in diameter, and there is little or no distinct , so the colony often merges imperceptibly into the bark or leaf it covers. Fruiting bodies of Fellhanera lichens are small, stalkless apothecia that start flat and can become slightly domed; their may carry a delicate white bloom () and vary in colour from pale beige or yellow to dark brown. The rim of fungal tissue () is built of rounded cells that can erode with age, leaving the disc exposed. Within, a clear hymenium reacts blue in iodine because each club-shaped ascus has an amyloid cap and coat; eight smooth, colourless ascospores are produced, usually divided by one to seven transverse walls (septa) and sometimes surrounded by a gelatinous sheath. Many specimens remain sterile in the field and instead develop plentiful immersed pycnidia—minute pustules whose gaping ostioles release tear-drop-shaped conidia. Chemically the genus is characterised by roccellic acid, zeorin and occasionally usnic acid or asemone; dropping acetone on a scrap of thallus on a microscope slide yields a tell-tale white ring of precipitated substances, a quick test that separates Fellhanera (chemically positive) from the look-alike genus Bacidina (chemically negative). ==Species==

, Species Fungorum accepts 69 species of Fellhanera. • Fellhanera africana • Fellhanera albidocincta • Fellhanera antennophora • Fellhanera atrofuscatula • Fellhanera azorica • Fellhanera badimioides • Fellhanera baeomycoides • Fellhanera borbonica • Fellhanera bouteillei • Fellhanera bullata • Fellhanera chejuensis • Fellhanera christiansenii • Fellhanera colchica • Fellhanera congesta • Fellhanera cryptocarpa • Fellhanera crucitignorum • Fellhanera dominicana • Fellhanera endopurpurea • Fellhanera eriniae • Fellhanera fallax • Fellhanera flavostanhopeae • Fellhanera fragilis • Fellhanera fuscatula • Fellhanera granulosa • Fellhanera guatemalensis • Fellhanera gyrophorica • Fellhanera hybrida • Fellhanera incolorata • Fellhanera ivoriensis • Fellhanera laeticolor • Fellhanera mackeei • Fellhanera maritima • Fellhanera mastothallina • Fellhanera microdiscus • Fellhanera minnisinkorum • Fellhanera montesfumosi • Fellhanera naevia • Fellhanera naevioides – Colombia • Fellhanera nashii • Fellhanera obscurata • Fellhanera ochracea • Fellhanera parvula • Fellhanera pluviosilvestris – Australia • Fellhanera pruinosa • Fellhanera punctata • Fellhanera rhaphidophylli • Fellhanera robusta • Fellhanera rubrolecanorina • Fellhanera santessonii • Fellhanera scottii • Fellhanera semecarpi • Fellhanera seroexspectata • Fellhanera silhouettae – Seychelles • Fellhanera silicis • Fellhanera stanhopeae • Fellhanera stictae • Fellhanera stipitata – Sri Lanka • Fellhanera subfuscatula • Fellhanera sublecanorina • Fellhanera submicrommata • Fellhanera subnaevia • Fellhanera subparvula • Fellhanera substanhopeae • Fellhanera vezdae • Fellhanera subtilis • Fellhanera tasmanica – Australia • Fellhanera termitophila – Brazil • Fellhanera tricharioides • Fellhanera tropica • Fellhanera tubulifera – Costa Rica • Fellhanera verrucifera • Fellhanera viridisorediata • Fellhanera vulgata • Fellhanera wirthii ==References==