Data from: Perspectives on chemotaxonomy: molecular data confirm the existence of two morphologically distinct species within a chemically defined Lepraria caesiella (Stereocaulaceae)

Lepraria caesiella as currently circumscribed includes two sets of populations with different thallus morphologies. The populations are chemically identical but differ ecologically and are rarely sympatric. A phylogeny was inferred from ITS1, 5.8S, and ITS2 sequence data generated from a geographically broad sampling of the populations with each thallus type. Two strongly-supported clades were recovered that correlate to the two different morphotypes present within the species. Thus, L. caesiella is restricted to populations with aggregate thalli. Populations with placodioid thalli are formally described as a new species, L. harrisiana. A detailed taxonomic treatment of both taxa is presented.

当前界定的蓝灰鳞叶衣（Lepraria caesiella）包含两类具有不同地衣体（thallus）形态的种群。这两类种群化学特征完全一致，但生态习性存在差异，且极少同域分布。研究人员针对两种地衣体类型的种群开展了广泛地理采样，基于获取的内转录间隔区1（ITS1）、5.8S核糖体RNA基因以及内转录间隔区2（ITS2）序列数据构建了系统发育树。分析结果得到两个高支持率的演化支（clade），二者分别对应该物种内的两种不同形态型。据此，蓝灰鳞叶衣仅局限于具聚生地衣体的种群；而具平伏壳状地衣体的种群被正式描述为新物种哈里斯鳞叶衣（Lepraria harrisiana）。本文对这两个分类群均进行了详尽的分类学处理。