{{Short description|Genus of lichens}} {{Italic title}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = Piccolia nannaria - Flickr - pellaea.jpg | image_caption = ''Piccolia nannaria'' growing on the bark of red maple | taxon = Piccolia | authority = A.Massal. (1864) | type_species = Piccolia crocea | type_species_authority = (Spreng.) A.Massal. (1856) | synonyms = * ''Biatorella'' <small>De Not.</small> | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = {{center|''See text''}} }}
'''''Piccolia''''' is a small genus of crustose lichens in the class Lecanoromycetes.{{sfn|Van den Broeck|Aptroot|Ertz|2013|p=384}}{{sfn|Catalogue of Life|2022|ref=CatofLife}} First circumscribed by Italian lichenologist Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo in 1864, it contains ten species.{{sfn|Catalogue of Life|2022|ref=CatofLife}}{{sfn|Index Fungorum|2022|ref=IF}} Due to a lack of molecular data, it has not been assigned to an order or family.{{sfn|Van den Broeck|Aptroot|Ertz|2013|p=384}}{{sfn|Catalogue of Life|2022|ref=CatofLife}}
== Taxonomy == Massalongo established the genus, which was initially monotypic, to contain the species ''Piccolia crocea''. He named it for Gregorio Piccoli, an 18th-century naturalist he referred to as "the most eminent investigator of the natural world".{{sfn|Massalongo|1856|p=41}} In 1927, Alexander Zahlbruckner, an Austrian-Hungarian lichenologist, merged it into the genus ''Biatorella'', based on the fact that they shared a number of characteristics: a crustose thallus, multi-spored asci (the lichen's spore-bearing cells) and apothecia that lack a thalline border.{{sfn|Hafellner|1995|pp=107–108}} However, Austrian lichenologist Josef Hafellner separated the two genera out again in 1994, arguing that ''Biatorella'' had been rendered "highly heterogenous" by Zahlbruckner's designation.{{sfn|Hafellner|1995|p=108}}
=== Species === The genus ''Piccolia'' includes the following species:
* ''Piccolia congolensis'' {{small|Van den Broeck, Aptroot & Ertz (2013)}} * ''Piccolia conspersa'' {{small|(Fée) Hafellner (1995)}} * ''Piccolia crocea'' {{small|(Spreng.) A. Massal. (1856)}} * ''Piccolia elmeri'' {{small|(Vain.) Hafellner (1995)}} * ''Piccolia haematina'' {{small|(Müll. Arg.) Hafellner (1995)}} * ''Piccolia kalbii'' {{small|Van den Broeck & Ertz (2013)}} * ''Piccolia nannaria'' {{small|(Tuck.) Lendemer & Beeching (2007)}} * ''Piccolia nivea'' {{small|Van den Broeck, Aptroot & Ertz (2013)}} * ''Piccolia ochrophora'' {{small|(Nyl.) Hafellner (2004)}} * ''Piccolia wrightii'' {{small|(Tuck.) Hafellner (1995)}}
== Distribution and ecology == While members of the genus are generally found in tropical or subtropical areas, the range of ''Piccolia conspersa'' extends into temperate regions, and ''Piccolia ochrophora'' is found in both North and South America as well as throughout Europe.{{sfn|Van den Broeck|Aptroot|Ertz|2013|p=384}} Several are restricted to islands: ''Piccolia nivea'' to Santa Isabel Island in the Solomon Islands and ''Piccolia kalbii'' to Réunion.{{sfn|Van den Broeck|Aptroot|Ertz|2013|pp=386, 388}} Most are corticolous or lignicolous, living on the bark of trees or stripped wood; some occur (though only rarely) on mosses.{{sfn|Hafellner|1995|p=109}} The photobiont is a chlorococcoid green alga.{{sfn|Van den Broeck|Aptroot|Ertz|2013|p=384}}
''Piccolia nannaria'' is a lichenicolous lichen, at least facultatively. It typically starts out growth as a free-living mycobiont and becomes lichenised with the photobiont of an unrelated lichen, in this case ''Pyrrhospora varians''.{{sfn|Diederich|Lawrey|Ertz|2018|p=378}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
=== Sources === {{Refbegin}} * {{cite web |url=https://www.catalogueoflife.org/?taxonKey=6Q78 |title=Genus: ''Piccolia'' |year=2022 |publisher=Catalogue of Life |access-date=28 September 2022 |ref=CatofLife}} * {{cite web |url=http://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/NamesRecord.asp?RecordID=4093 |title=''Piccolia'' |year=2022 |publisher=Index Fungorum |access-date=28 September 2022 |ref=IF}} * {{cite journal |last1=Diederich |first1=Paul |last2=Lawrey |first2=James D. |last3=Ertz |first3=Damien |title=The 2018 classification and checklist of lichenicolous fungi, with 2000 non-lichenized, obligately lichenicolous taxa |journal=The Bryologist |volume=121 |issue=3 |year=2018 |pages=340–425 |doi=10.1639/0007-2745-121.3.340 |s2cid=92396850 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328374342}} * {{cite journal |first=Josef |last=Hafellner |title=Über Piccolia, eine lichenisierte Pilzgattung der Tropen (Ascomycotina, Lecanorales) |language=German |journal=Bibliotheca Lichenologica |volume=58 |pages=107–122 |date=January 1995 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309292886}} * {{cite book |last=Massalongo |first=Abramo Bartolommeo |year=1856 |url=https://digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10301610?page=45 |title=Miscellanea lichenologica |publisher=Giuseppe Civelli |location=Verona |language=La}} * {{cite journal |last1=Van den Broeck |first1=Dries |last2=Aptroot |first2=André |last3=Ertz |first3=Damien |title=Three new species in the lichen genus ''Piccolia'' (Biatorellaceae, lichenized Ascomycota) from the Palaeotropics |journal=Plant Ecology and Evolution |volume=146 |issue=3 |pages=384–388 |date=2013 |doi=10.5091/plecevo.2013.906 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260081244|doi-access=free }} {{Refend}}
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Category:Lichen genera Category:Lecanoromycetes Category:Lecanoromycetes genera Category:Taxa described in 1856 Category:Taxa named by Abramo Bartolommeo Massalongo