NOMENCLATURAL NOTES ON PYRENOMYCETES

Abstract

The present paper is a by-product of the author's collaboration in the Index Nominum Genericorum project which has given him the pleasure of scrutinizing Io090 Pyrenomycete generic names. Not unexpectedly, several of these turned out to be problematic in different ways. As the ING-cards are not the proper place for nomenclatural expositions, it seems appropriate to publish a separate commentary. New lectotypes are proposed for some names and four names are proposed for conservation. The causes of the muddle are various: Several names have proven to be first published as nomina nuda, like Cryptovalsa Cesati & De Notaris, and Calospora, Fuckelia, Melanops, Melomastia, and Nitschkia, all published by Fuckel. In these cases we have to get hold of the first valid publication, not least because it can be decisive for the typification. Other names are, on the contrary, older than has been generally assumed, owing to their first publication being in more or less disregarded works. Among such books are a couple of Fries's, viz. Systema Orbis Vegetabilium (Gibbera), and Flora Scanica (Dothiora and Saccothecium). A kind of publications containing several new generic names are the exsiccatae, which fact has often been overlooked. Among those names are some early fallen into oblivion, like Ascoxyta and Xeilaria, both validly published in Madame Libert's Plantae Cryptogamicae, and further Hapalocystis, Microstoma, and Wuestneia, in Fuckel's Fungi Rhenani. But also well known generic names have without being noticed first seen the light of the day in exsiccatae, like Fuckel's Herpotrichia, Ohleria, and Phyllachora, in Fungi Rhenani, and Karsten's Rebentischia and Rhynchostoma, in Fungi Fenniae.