{{Short description|Species of lichen}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Use Oxford spelling|date=June 2025}} {{Speciesbox | image = | image_caption = | taxon = Cora accipiter | authority = B.Moncada, Madriñán & [[Robert Lücking|Lücking]] (2016) }}

'''''Cora accipiter''''' is a species of [[basidiolichen]] in the family [[Hygrophoraceae]].<ref name="CoL_Y95Z"/> It was [[species description|formally described]] as a new species in 2016 by Bibiana Moncada, Santiago Madriñán, and [[Robert Lücking]]. The [[botanical name|specific epithet]], which refers to hawks of the genus ''[[Accipiter]]'', alludes to the wing-shaped lobes of the lichen, and also honours mycologist [[David Leslie Hawksworth]]. The lichen is found in South America, where it grows in the wet [[páramo]] regions of the northern [[Andes]]. Closely related species include ''[[Cora cyphellifera|C.&nbsp;cyphellifera]]'' and ''[[Cora arachnoidea|C.&nbsp;arachnoidea]]''.

==Taxonomy==

''Cora accipiter'' is a [[basidiolichen]] in the family [[Hygrophoraceae]] (order [[Agaricales]]). It was [[species description|formally described]] in 2016 by Bibiana Moncada, Manuel Madriñán, and [[Robert Lücking]] from material collected in the [[páramo]] of [[Chingaza National Natural Park|Chingaza]] in the [[Cordillera Oriental (Colombia)|eastern cordillera]] of Colombia. The [[botanical name|epithet]], ''accipiter''—used as a [[noun]] in [[apposition]]—draws an analogy between the lichen's fan- or wing-shaped {{lichengloss|lobes}} and the wings of hawks in the genus ''[[Accipiter]]''. [[Internal transcribed spacer]] rDNA sequences from the holotype and numerous paratypes place the species in the ''Cora arachnoidea–cyphellifera'' clade, but an expanded data set distinguishes ''C.&nbsp;accipiter'' from its close relatives ''[[Cora arachnoidea|C.&nbsp;arachnoidea]]'' and ''[[Cora cyphellifera|C.&nbsp;cyphellifera]]''.<ref name="Lücking et al. 2016"/>

==Description==

The thallus is somewhat [[epiphyte|epiphytic]], forming a [[foliose lichen|foliose]] carpet up to 20&nbsp;cm across at the bases or lower stems of páramo shrubs, or over grasses and other herbaceous plants. It comprises 5–25 overlapping, fan- to wing-shaped lobes, each 2–3&nbsp;cm wide and 1–3&nbsp;cm long. Long, radial branching sutures frequently split, leaving the lobes laterally truncated and giving them a ragged "wing" outline. Fresh upper surfaces are light olive to olive-brown with a faint concentric colour zoning; the thin, rolled-in ({{lichengloss|involute}}) margins are pale and finely {{lichengloss|pilose}}. When dry, the surface becomes distinctly undulate-rugose and shows concentric bands of short, cobweb-like ({{lichengloss|arachnoid}}) tomentum. The lower surface lacks a {{lichengloss|cortex}} (it is {{lichengloss|ecorticate}}) and exposes a whitish-to-cream felty [[medulla (lichenology)|medulla]].

In section the thallus is 400–500&nbsp;[[micrometre]]s (μm) thick. The upper cortex is 20–40&nbsp;μm thick and viaduct-shaped, underlain by a 70–100&nbsp;μm zone of spaced anticlinal hyphae; stout setae (200–400&nbsp;μm long, 30–40&nbsp;μm wide at the base) emerge through this layer. The {{lichengloss|algal layer}} is 100–200 μm thick, orange-brown above and bluish-green below. A 100–150&nbsp;μm hydrophobic medulla completes the section; neither [[clamp connection]]s nor papillate hyphae are present. The fertile surface forms pale yellow-brown, {{lichengloss|resupinate}} patches 0.5–2&nbsp;mm long and 1–5&nbsp;mm broad that may anastomose into diffuse, concentric lines. Its [[hymenium]] (60–80&nbsp;μm) contains abundant palisade-like basidioles (20–30 × 5–7&nbsp;μm) and scattered four-spored [[basidia]] (25–35 × 5–7&nbsp;μm); [[basidiospore]]s have not been observed. [[Thin-layer chromatography]] revealed no detectable [[secondary metabolite]]s.<ref name="Lücking et al. 2016"/>

==Habitat and distribution==

''Cora accipiter'' was originally documented from the wet [[páramo]] ecosystems of the northern [[Andes]] of Colombia and Venezuela, at elevations of roughly 3,200–3,730&nbsp;m. It grows epiphytically at the bases and lower stems of páramo shrubs—or immediately above the ground on grasses and other low herbs—where frequent mist, strong winds, and intense [[ultraviolet]] radiation prevail.<ref name="Lücking et al. 2016"/> It was later recorded in the [[El Ángel, Ecuador|El Ángel]] páramo of Ecuador at about 3950&nbsp;m elevation.<ref name="González et al. 2019"/>

==References== {{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="CoL_Y95Z">{{Catalogue of Life |id=Y95Z |title=''Cora accipiter'' B. Moncada, Madriñán & Lücking |access-date=17 June 2025}}</ref>

<ref name="González et al. 2019">{{cite journal |last1=González |first1=Yadira |last2=Aragón |first2=Gregorio |last3=Prieto |first3=María |title=Nuevos registros de líquenes terrícolas en los páramos ecuatorianos |trans-title=New records of terricolous lichens in Ecuadorian páramos |journal=Caldasia |volume=41 |issue=2 |year=2019 |doi=10.15446/caldasia.v41n2.72040 |doi-access=free |pages=445–449|bibcode=2019Cald...41..445G }}</ref>

<ref name="Lücking et al. 2016">{{cite journal |display-authors=6 |last1=Lücking |first1=Robert |last2=Forno |first2=Manuela Dal |last3=Moncada |first3=Bibiana |last4=Coca |first4=Luis Fernando |last5=Vargas-Mendoza |first5=Leidy Yasmín |last6=Aptroot |first6=André |authorlink6=André Aptroot |last7=Arias |first7=Laura Juliana |last8=Besal |first8=Betty |last9=Bungartz |first9=Frank |last10=Cabrera-Amaya |first10=Diego Mauricio |last11=Cáceres |first11=Marcela E. S. |last12=Chaves |first12=José Luis |last13=Eliasaro |first13=Sionara |last14=Gutiérrez |first14=Martha Cecilia |last15=Hernández Marin |first15=Jesús E. |last16=de los Ángeles Herrera-Campos |first16=María |last17=Holgado-Rojas |first17=María E. |last18=Jonitz |first18=Harald |last19=Kukwa |first19=Martin |last20=Lucheta |first20=Fabiane |last21=Madriñán |first21=Santiago |last22=Marcelli |first22=Marcelo Pinto |last23=de Azevedo Martins |first23=Suzana Maria |last24=Mercado-Díaz |first24=Joel A. |last25=Molina |first25=Jorge Alberto |last26=Morales |first26=Eduardo A. |last27=Nelson |first27=Peter R. |last28=Nugra |first28=Freddy |last29=Ortega |first29=Francisco |last30=Paredes |first30=Telma |last31=Patiño |first31=Ayda Lucía |last32=Peláez-Pulido |first32=Rouchi Nadine |last33=Pérez |first33=Rosa Emilia Pérez |last34=Perlmutter |first34=Gary B. |last35=Rivas-Plata |first35=Eimy |last36=Robayo |first36=Javier |last37=Rodríguez |first37=Camilo |last38=Simijaca |first38=Diego Fernando |last39=Soto-Medina |first39=Edier |last40=Spielmann |first40=Adriano Afonso |last41=Suárez-Corredor |first41=Alejandra |last42=Torres |first42=Jean-Marc |last43=Vargas |first43=Carlos Alberto|last44=Yánez-Ayabaca |first44=Alba |last45=Weerakoon |first45=Gothamie |last46=Wilk |first46=Karina |last47=Pacheco |first47=Marcela Celis |last48=Diazgranados |first48=Mauricio |last49=Brokamp |first49=Grischa |last50=Borsch |first50=Thomas |last51=Gillevet |first51=Patrick M. |last52=Sikaroodi |first52=Masoumeh |last53=Lawrey |first53=James D. |title=Turbo-taxonomy to assemble a megadiverse lichen genus: seventy new species of ''Cora'' (Basidiomycota: Agaricales: Hygrophoraceae), honouring David Leslie Hawksworth's seventieth birthday |journal=Fungal Diversity |volume=84 |issue=1 |year=2016 |pages=139–207 |doi=10.1007/s13225-016-0374-9}}</ref>

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[[Category:Cora (fungus)|accipiter]] [[Category:Lichen species]] [[Category:Lichens described in 2016]] [[Category:Lichens of South America]] [[Category:Basidiolichens]] [[Category:Taxa named by Robert Lücking]] [[Category:Taxa named by Bibiana Moncada]]