The Verrucariaceae are a family of mostly lichenised fungi in the order Verrucariales. The lichen-forming species, which comprise the vast majority of the family, have a wide variety of thallus forms, and include crustose (crust-like), foliose (bushy), and squamulose (scaly) representatives. Several characteristics of the spore-bearing structures, the ascomata, define the family, including their perithecioid form–more or less spherical or flask-shaped, with a single opening and otherwise completely enclosed by a wall. Squamulose members of the Verrucariaceae with simple ascospores, and without algae in the spore-bearing region are known as catapyrenioid lichens; there are more than 80 of these species. The family has several dozen lichenicolous (lichen-dwelling) examples, including a few genera that contain solely lichenicolous members. An unusually diverse variety of photobiont partners have been recorded, mostly green algae, but also brown algae and yellow-green algae.
Pilophorus acicularis, commonly known as the nail lichen or the devil's matchstick lichen, is a species of matchstick lichen in the family Cladoniaceae.
Peltigera aphthosa is a species of lichen known by the common names green dog lichen, leafy lichen, felt lichen, and common freckle pelt. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the Arctic, boreal, and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
Rolf Santesson (1916–2013) was a Swedish lichenologist and university lecturer. He was awarded the Acharius Medal in 1992 for his lifetime contributions to lichenology.
Stereocaulon alpinum is a species of fungus belonging to the family Stereocaulaceae. It is similar to Stereocaulon paschale but differs from it in containing cyanobacteria of the genus Nostoc while S. paschale contains cyanobacteria of the genus Stigonema, which have a darker colour than Nostoc.
Lichenopeltella santessonii is a species of lichenicolous fungus belonging to the class Dothideomycetes. It was first formally described as a new species of Micropeltopsis in 1990 by mycologists Paul Kirk and Brian Spooner. The specific epithet honours Swedish lichenologist Rolf Santesson, who collected the type specimen in Sala Municipality, Sweden, where it was growing on the foliose lichen Peltigera canina. Santesson transferred the taxon to the genus Lichenopeltella in 1993.
Muellerella lichenicola is a species of lichenicolous fungus in the family Verrucariaceae. It was first formally described as a new species in 1826 by Søren Christian Sommerfelt, as Sphaeria lichenicola. David Leslie Hawksworth transferred it to the genus Muellerella in 1979.
Calicium carolinianum is a species of lichen in the family Caliciaceae. It is endemic to the Gulf Coastal Plain region of the United States. The lichen contains norstictic acid, and has ascospores that measure 13–17 by 8–9 μm.
Ochrolechia africana, commonly known as the frosty saucer lichen, is a species of crustose and corticolous (bark-dwelling) lichen in the family Ochrolechiaceae. It is a widely distributed species, found in tropical and subtropical areas of southern Africa, Asia, Australia, North America, and South America. The lichen is characterized by the presence of a white "frosty" or powdery apothecia.
Nanostictis caucasica is a species of lichenicolous (lichen-eating) fungus in the family Stictidaceae. It is known to occur only in a single locality in the North Caucasus region of Southern Russia, where it grows parasitically on the foliose lichen Parmelia sulcata.
Opegrapha vulpina is a species of lichenicolous (lichen-eating) fungus in the family Opegraphaceae. It is found in the Czech Republic, Dobruja, Romania, and the Italian Apennine Mountains. It grows parasitically on two species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichens.
Zwackhiomyces polischukii is a species of lichenicolous (lichen-eating) fungus in the family Xanthopyreniaceae. It occurs in Ukraine, where it parasitises the crustose lichens Bacidia fraxinea and B. rubella.
Endococcus hafellneri is a species of lichenicolous (lichen-eating) fungus in the family Verrucariaceae. It is found in North Asia and the Russian Far East, Estonia, and Japan, where it grows on the lobes of the lichens Flavocetraria cucullata and Cetraria islandica.
Pseudocyphellaria glabra is a species of corticolous (bark-dwelling), foliose lichen in the family Peltigeraceae. It has a pale-green upper thallus surface, a white medulla and white pseudocyphellae.
Endococcus nanellus is a species of lichenicolous fungus in the order Dothideales. It is known from Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Hawaii, Japan, Russia, South-Korea, and Kazakhstan.
Calicium pinicola is a species of lignicolous (wood-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Caliciaceae. It is widely distributed in Europe, and also occurs in the United States.
Solorina crocea, commonly known as the orange chocolate chip lichen, is a species of terricolous (ground-dwelling) and foliose (leafy) lichen in the family Peltigeraceae. The lichen, which was first formally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, has an arctic–alpine and circumpolar distribution and occurs in Asia, Europe, North America, and New Zealand. It generally grows on the bare ground in sandy soils, often in moist soil near snow patches or seepage areas. Although several forms and varieties of the lichen have been proposed in its history, these are not considered to have any independent taxonomic significance.
Trimmatothele is a genus of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichens in the family Verrucariaceae. It has five species. The genus was formally published by lichenologist Alexander Zahlbruckner in 1903. The type species, Trimmatothele perquisita, was originally collected from Norway by Johannes M. Norman, who placed it in the genus Coniothele in 1868. Diagnostic characteristics of Trimmatothele include a thin thallus with a smooth surface; small perithecia that are partially immersed in the substrata and have an involucrellum; asci that contain multiple ascospores; and small, simple ascospores. Trimmatothele has been described as one of the most poorly known genera of lichens due to the rarity of its species, the few available herbarium specimens, and some missing type specimens.
Pyrenidium is a genus of lichenicolous (lichen-dwelling) fungi. It is the only genus in the family Pyrenidiaceae. It has 13 species.
Atla wheldonii is a species of terricolous (ground-dwelling), crustose lichen in the family Verrucariaceae. Found in Europe, it was formally described as a new species in 1947 by William Gladstone Travis from specimens collected from sand dunes in Lancashire, England, in 1924. Sanja Savić and Leif Tibell transferred the taxon to genus Atla in 2008 following molecular phylogenetic analysis that showed that it, along with three other Northern European species, comprised a distinct clade in the Verrucariacae.
