Data from: Coalescent-based species delimitation approach uncovers high cryptic diversity in the cosmopolitan lichen-forming fungal genus Protoparmelia (Lecanorales, Ascomycota)

Species recognition in lichen-forming fungi has been a challenge because
of unsettled species concepts, few taxonomically relevant traits, and
limitations of traditionally used morphological and chemical characters
for identifying closely related species. Here we analyze species diversity
in the cosmopolitan genus Protoparmelia s.l. The ~25 described species in
this group occur across diverse habitats from the boreal -arctic/alpine to
the tropics, but their relationship to each other remains unexplored. In
this study, we inferred the phylogeny of 18 species currently assigned to
this genus based on 160 specimens and six markers: mtSSU, nuLSU, ITS,
RPB1, MCM7, and TSR1. We assessed the circumscription of species-level
lineages in Protoparmelia s. str. using two coalescent-based species
delimitation methods – BP&P and spedeSTEM. Our results suggest the
presence of a tropical and an extra-tropical lineage, and eleven
previously unrecognized distinct species-level lineages in Protoparmelia
s. str. Several cryptic lineages were discovered as compared to
phenotype-based species delimitation. Many of the putative species are
supported by geographic evidence.