the genus Coccocarpia (Peltigerales: Coccocarpiaceae) - Instituto ...

Introduction
In 2002, we started TICOLICHEN, a project supported by the National Science Foundation
(NSF) to unravel Costa Ricas tremendous lichen diversity (GÁMEZ et al. 1997; LÜCKING et
al. 2004; CHAVES et al. 2004; LÜCKING 2005). The goals of this international collaboration
between The Field Museum in Chicago, the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio) in
Costa Rica, the Botanischer Garten & Botanisches Museum in Berlin, and various other
institutions in the United States (University of Wisconsin-Madison, New York Botanical
Garden), The Netherlands (Adviesbureau voor Bryologie en Lichenologie), and Austria
(Karl-Franzens-Universität), are to enhance the taxonomic knowledge of tropical lichens at
both the local and world-wide level, through a comprehensive, printed lichen biota of Costa
Rica, tentatively scheduled for publication in 2008. Several genera and families have
already been treated in individual assessments, in order to communicate improvements in
our taxonomic understanding of tropical lichens (CHAVES et al. 2004; GRUBE et al. 2004;
LÜCKING et al. 2006a, b; NELSEN et al. 2006; RIVAS PLATA et al. 2006).
Here we present a preliminary treatment of Coccocarpia Pers., a genus of about 25,
small-foliose, cyanophilic lichen species mainly found in the humid tropics, but with a few
taxa extending into the northern and southern hemisphere. Coccocarpia forms the core
genus of the Coccocarpiaceae, a small family of about five genera now confirmed to belong
to suborder Collematineae within Peltigerales, together with Collemataceae, Pannariaceae,
and Placynthiaceae (MIADLIKOWSKA & LUTZONI 2004; MIADLIKOWSKA et al. 2006).
Coccocarpia was first treated in a modern sense by SANTESSON (1952), HENSSEN (1963)
and HENSSEN & JAHNS (1974) and eventually monographed more than 20 years ago by
ARVIDSSON (1983). Since then, remarkably few papers have been published with new
discoveries. Only two new species were described, both from Venezuela (MARCANO et al.
1995): Coccocarpia culatensis V. Marcano & A. Morales, related to C. epiphylla, and C.
duidensis V. Marcano, Galiz & A. Morales, related to C. dissecta.
An extensive treatment of Coccocarpia in Costa Rica was presented by DODGE (1933),
who reported 11 names, four species and seven varieties, including the new species C.
albida Dodge. Unfortunately, his treatment is completely untenable, since a revision of the
rich material in FH (75 specimens) revealed these names to be a confusing mix of mostly
C. erythroxyli, C. palmicola, and C. pellita, but also C. adnata, C. dissecta, and C.
glaucina, and the overlooked new species, C. gallaicoi, described herein. During our
TICOLICHEN survey, we identified 18 species of Coccocarpia, four of which could not be
identified with any known species and which are here described as new, including the C.
gallaicoi dedicated to David Galloway, and a further one which it tentatively identified as
C. aff. gallaicoi. We also present a key and an ecological analysis of the genus in Costa
Rica.
430