Taxonomy
The genus was originally circumscribed by the Austrian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1777. [2] Martyn Dibben designated Lichen albescens (= Lepra albescens ) as a neotype for the genus in 1980. [3] In 2015, Kondratyuk and colleagues proposed the new genus Marfloraea to contain 13 members of the Variola group (one of four major clades identified in Pertusaria in the broad sense), with Marfloraea amara (= Lepra amara ) selected as the type. [4] The proposed genus was rejected a year later when Josef Hafellner and Ayşen Türk explained that the new genus name was superfluous because older available names existed that should have instead been used. [5] Consequently, the genus Lepra was reinstated to contain species formerly placed in the Pertusaria albescens species group. [1]
Subsequent molecular studies have confirmed that the species now placed in Lepra form a well-supported, monophyletic lineage that is distinct from Pertusaria in the strict sense. For much of the twentieth century these lichens were often treated under VariolariaPers. (1794), but that name is a later homonym of VariolariaBull. (1791), which applies to a different taxon of uncertain disposition. A proposal was therefore put forward to conserve VariolariaPers. against both Lepra and VariolariaBull., so that the traditional name Variolaria could continue to be used for this group. However, by the time the proposal was considered, Lepra had already been widely adopted in the recent literature, almost all required new combinations had been made, and several additional species had been described in the genus. The Nomenclature Committee for Fungi judged that reverting to Variolaria would be more disruptive than maintaining current usage of Lepra, and voted against recommending conservation. [6]
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