New and interesting Websites

Mediterranean lichens on-line

Foliicolous lichens on-line

New and interesting Websites

British Lichen Society website - The latest addition to the BLS web site is a list of synonyms of British Lichens, with notes, prepared by B. Coppins. The list includes many which predate the 1980 Check List. He welcomes comments, additions and corrections. The British Isles List of Lichens has been updated ahead of the publication of the Summer Bulletin. Changes to the list since its original publication are given and are fully incorporated in the List which is also available as a CSV file. http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/jmgray/

Cryptogamic collections of MA (Real Jardin Botanico, Madrid) - 100% of the collections of MA are databased and now searchable on line. The database includes information on over 100,000 specimens of algae, bryophytes, lichens and fungi, mostly from the Iberian Peninsula and the Western Mediterranean. Queries can be made by any data usually found on herbarium labels (taxon name, collection site, habitat, etc.). All identifications are recorded and maps (via PARC Xerox) are available for geo-referenced specimens. The on-line database is available at: http://www.rjb.csic.es/herbario/crypto/crydb.htm

Lichens and lichenology in the Netherlands - This new website includes a Lichen checklist (1999), also downloadable as a database, a Red List (1997), and a special section (in Dutch) with several illustrations, plus links and e-mail addresses. Look at: http://www.lichens.myweb.nl/

Lichen identification keys - New "traditional" keys linked on this page are directed to students of North American lichens. They treat Cladoniaceae of the Queen Charlotte Islands and the genus Lecanora of New England and were placed on the Web by Philip May. The interactive keys of the LIAS project are continuously improved and updated and are becoming more and more user-friendly. Try e.g. the key for Cladoniaceae of the Queen Charlotte Islands and compare it with the traditional key for the same group: http://www.bgbm.org/sipman/keys/default.htm. (Harrie Sipman, Berlin)

The Farlow Herbarium website - A new lichen key is now available on the Farlow Herbarium website: Preliminary key to Lecanora species likely to occur in New England" by H. Th. Lumbsch and I. M. Brodo. This informal working key covers 64 species of Lecanora s.lat. known or believed likely to occur in New England. The URL for the Farlow's lichen-related pages is http://herbaria.harvard.edu/Data/Farlow/lichens/index.html Four other lichen-related works are presently available at the available at the Farlow website: Key to Cladina and Cladonia on the Queen Charlotte Islands by I.M. Brodo, Identifying North American Lichens: A Guide to the Literature by Ph. F. May and I.M. Brodo, How to Identify a Macrolichen by Ph. F. May, How to Collect Lichens by Ph. F. May. (Phil May).

Lichen checklists - A very nice link to many checklists available on-line. You can reach them by clicking on the respective country in a series of clickable maps. http://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/biologie/ialb/herbar/lichenw.htm.

Lichenology in Slovakia - Information about lichenological activities in Slovakia can be found at the new page: www.botanika.sk.

Lichens of the British Isles - A list of published maps available at: www.brad.ac.uk/acad/envsci/infostore/herbarium/database.htm.

Herbaria of M.R.D.Seaward: available at: www.brad.ac.uk/acad/envsci/infostore/herbarium/herbarium.htm.

Lichen herbaria of Oxford University (OXF): available at: www.plants.ox.ac.uk/ herbarium/lichens.html.

Mediterranean lichens on-line - Some progress has been made on the Mediterranean lichens on-line project. It is now possible to ask for the geographic distribution of a species by querying a database which holds information on lichens in Cyprus, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Slovenia, Tunisia, Turkey (http://biobase.kfunigraz.ac.at/flechte/owa/askmediflo2). These data come from previously published checklists, except for Italy, which is maintained as a continuously updated file. The second version of the Database on Italian lichens will be available, starting from September 30^th, at the following new address: http://dbiodbs.univ.trieste.it/askita.html. Besides the usual updatings, it will contain new features such as a subdivision of the country in c. 100 Operational Geographic Units, and GIS-based predictive distributional maps for all species. Additionally, remarks and ecological indices can be retrieved, based on the entries in the database of Italian lichens (http://biobase.kfunigraz.ac.at/flechte/owa/askitalflo). The query name can also be reformatted to obtain information from other internet sites: e.g. a list of specimens stored in the herbarium of Trieste (TSB, a query to http://biobase.kfunigraz.ac.at/flechte/owa/asktsb), the presence of the species in Scandinavia by an external query to the Norwegian lichen database (http://www.toyen.uio.no/botanisk/bot-mus/lav/soklavhb.htm), to retrieve taxonomic information on the genus name (external query to http://www.nmnh.si.edu/ing/), or to get a list of recent literature on the queried genus (external query to http://www.toyen.uio.no/botanisk/bot-mus/lav/sok_rll.htm). Work in progress includes the refinement of the taxonomic thesaurus, to account for different taxonomic concepts at the genus level in the national checklists, and links to other databases, in particular specimen-based herbarium databases. (M. Grube, Graz).

On-line specimen lists - As continuation to the forum discussions in the Newsletter 30, 2 and 32, 1 a prototype of an on-line specimen lists database is under development, and will be available for review and discussion during the IAL meeting in Barcelona. Storage of specimen data in an on-line database is likely to avoid problems of outdated hardware technology, a problem encountered with historic archives stored on electronic media, while achieving wide accessibility. The database will follow a simple model, which allows that plain text lists of specimens can be pasted on-line into the database. The lists will directly refer to monographic publications which include taxonomic information and a certain amount of descriptive data. If a person who has already submitted a specimen list wants to update that list, new entries can be appended by this person, using a password, to the already existing primary entry. (M. Grube, Graz)

Foliicolous lichens on-line - All you want to know about foliicolous lichens is now available on a new website at http://www.uni-bayreuth.de/departments/planta2/ass/fass2.html, edited by Robert Lücking (Dept. of Plant Systematics, Univ. of Bayreuth). Divided into six chapters, it summarizes our present knowledge on different aspects of foliicolous lichen biology and provides a survey on current research projects in the Department. Separate contributions include an updated Checklist of foliicolous lichens and their lichenicolous fungi, as well as a list of species distributed in Lichenes Foliicoli Exsiccati and a List of environmental index values for foliicolous lichens. The Checklist of foliicolous lichens and their lichenicolous fungi. Part I. Foliicolous lichens (Lücking, Farkas, Sérusiaux & Sipman) continues the earlier checklists compiled by Farkas & Sipman (Trop. Bryol. 7: 93-148, 1993; Abstr. Bot. 21, 1: 173-206, 1997) but differs in including all published basionyms and synonyms except for nomenclatural synonyms used before Santesson (Symb. Bot. Ups. 12, 1: 1-590, 1952). In total, it comprises more than 1.800 entries, of which 699 correspond to currently accepted genera (71) and species (628). The remaining 185 generic and 920 specific names represent basionyms, synonyms, invalidly published names, non-lichenized fungi or taxa which do not contain foliicolous representatives. Including nomenclatural synonyms listed by Santesson, the proportion of accepted names, taxonomic synonyms, and nomenclatural synonyms can be roughly estimated to one third each. Details for accepted taxa include full synonymy, typification, systematic affinity, exsiccata and distribution. The following distribution types are distinguished (with proportions): pantropical or cosmopolitan (22%), tropical America and Australasia (5%), tropical America and Africa (9%), tropical Africa and Australasia (3%), tropical America (29%), tropical Africa (10%), tropical Australasia (19%), Europe (3%). This means that 39 % of all species show wide (intercontinental) distribution, while 61% exhibit restricted continental distributions. Species richness differentiated among continents amounts to 412 for tropical America, 276 for Africa, 310 for Australasia and 28 for Europe. A Part II. Lichenicolous fungi (Lücking, Diederich & Etayo) complements the checklist of foliicolous lichens. So far, it contains 203 entries: 26 accepted genera with 77 species, 4 anamorphic genera with 9 species, as well as 29 generic and 58 specific names which represent basionyms, synonyms, invalidly published names, or taxa which are not lichenicolous on foliicolous lichens or do not contain species with such a biological status. It is further planned to compile a floristic checklist for tropical countries and major tropical regions, as well as a key to genera and species of foliicolous lichens (in collaboration with G. Rambold and the LIAS project). As far as possible, all accepted species will be illustrated by habit photographs. All checklists will be updated regularly every six months. Comments on the new website and the checklists which help to improve the displayed information are highly welcome (rlucking@ hotmail.com).