The genus Variospora, currently including c. 20 species, was segregated from Caloplaca s.lat. and seems to be related to Seirophora, which strongly differs in having a hairy, more or less fruticose thallus often lacking orange pigments (Arup & al. 2013). Placodioid species resemble those of e.g. Calogaya or even Rusavskia, but can be separated by the citriform spores or by the length of their equatorial thickening; those with citriform spores were segregated into the new genus Klauderuiella S.Y. Kondr. & Hur (Kondratyuk & al. 2017) which, pending further study, is not accepted here. Non-placodioid species are still very poorly known and badly need revision based on molecular data; they can be confused with those of several other genera; several of them, according to Roux & al. (2025) are lichenicolus on species of Pyrenodesmia at least at the beginning of the life-cycle. The present key includes the species known to occur in Italy (Nimis 2016), plus some species known from neighbouring countries and whose presence in Italy is possible, for a total of 16 species.

References

Arup U., Søchting U., Frödén P. 2013. A new taxonomy of the family Teloschistaceae. Nord. J. Bot., 31: 16-183.
Kondratyuk S.Y., Lőkös L., Upreti D.K., Nayaka S., Mishra G.K., Ravera S., Jeong M. H., Jang S.-H., Park J.S., Hur J.-S. 2017. New monophyletic branches of the Teloschistaceae (lichen-forming Ascomycota) proved by three gene phylogeny. Acta Bot. Hung., 59: 71-136.
Nimis P.L. 2016. The Lichens of Italy. A Second Annotated Catalogue. EUT, Trieste, 739 pp.
Roux C. & Coll. 2025. Catalogue des lichens et champignons lichenicoles de France metropolitaine. 4e edition revue et augmentee. Edit. Claude Roux, Mirabeau (Vaucluse), 2015 pp. ISBN 979-10-415-6785-0.

Last modified: December, 13, 2025

Project Dryades, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste - CC BY-SA 4.0