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2 M.J. Wigginton
b) the reassignment of taxa which were placed in (2) in the genera Aneura, Aspiromitus,
Anthoceros, Fimbriaria, Hygrolejeunea, Madotheca, Schisma and Strepsilejeunea,
c) the reassignment of some records to Eritrea or Ethiopia following the re-checking of the
geographical locations of places cited in (121, 502).
In sub-Saharan Africa, including the islands, 1076 taxa (1029 species and 47 additional taxa of lower
rank) are currently accepted in 140 genera and 46 families. One family (Wiesnerellaceae), 9 genera
(Allisoniella, Bryopteris, Capillolejeunea, Geocalyx, Metalejeunea, Otolejeunea, Symbiezidium,
Wiesnerella, Xylolejeunea) and 207 species or lower rank taxa have been recorded in Africa only from
the East African Islands.
The list of currently accepted taxa excludes those which have been placed in synonymy or have been
published as 'Dubia. Excludenda' or 'Dubia. Indeterminate', but does include many taxa which have
been insufficiently studied (or perhaps not re-examined since first described - which may be in the
19th century), and some of doubtful occurrence in Africa. It seems likely that some or many of the
latter will eventually be placed in synonymy or rejected for other reasons. Taxa whose validity, status
or occurrence may be uncertain are not differentiated in this checklist, and reference should be made to
(1) and (2) for further information. Two taxa, whose taxonomic position and validity is yet to be
clarified, remain listed under the generic synonym Fimbriaria, though they are probably species of
Asterella.
Data for the checklist are held on the TAXA system (541), and the main taxon distribution list was
generated directly from TAXA. The format of this checklist follows that established by O'Shea (171,
540) for the Checklist of the mosses of sub-Saharan Africa, and subsequently adopted by Ros et al. (3)
for the Bryophyte checklist of Northern Africa.
The checklist is not a taxonomic document, and no new taxonomy is published here: it is merely a
summation of published records. In its compilation, no judgements have been made by the author on
the validity of taxa, or on the acceptability of regional records. Despite checking and re-checking,
some errors doubtless remain undetected in this document, and literature overlooked, and the author
would be very grateful to know of any of these.
This checklist is published both as a printed version and an electronic version (via
http://www.oshea.demon.co.uk/tbr.htm) so that it is made as widely available as possible. It is
intended that further editions will be published in the same way at intervals of a few years.
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to Brian O'Shea for a careful reading of the text and detecting transcription and other
errors. Many thanks also to Riclef Grolle who kindly read some of the final draft and pointed out some
overlooked records and synonymy. However, any errors which may still remain in this document are
entirely the responsibility of the author.