Fungalpedia – Note 2679, Lettauia
Lettauia D. Hawksw. & R. Sant.
Citation when using this data: Meng QF et al. – Fungalpedia.
Index Fungorum, Faceoffungi, MycoBank, GenBank, Fig 1.
Classification: Stictidaceae, Ostropales, Ostropomycetidae, Lecanoromycetes, Pezizomycotina, Ascomycota, Fungi.
Lettauia was introduced by Hawksworth et al. (1990) to accommodate the type species L. cladoniicola, which grows on Cladonia amaurocraea, and was initially placed within Fuscidiaceae. Ihlen et al. (1996) later introduced a second species, L. santessonii, found on Loxospora pustulata, and Etayo (2002c, 2017) added two more species: L. hypotrachynae on Hypotrachyna and L. usneae on Usnea.
A phylogenetic analysis by Pino-Bodas et al. (2017) positioned the type species within Cryptodiscus (Stictaceae). Consequently, the type species Lettauia cladoniicola was transferred to Cryptodiscus, and the other three species keep in this genus due to the absence of sequence data. Further studies are needed to determine whether these species should be transferred to another genus once the sequence data is available.
Type species: Lettauia cladoniicola D. Hawksw. & R. Sant. (Hawksworth et al. 1990), this species had been transferred to Cryptodiscus cladoniicola (D. Hawksw. & R. Sant.) Pino-Bodas, Zhurb. & S. Stenroos (Pino-Bodas et al. 2017)
Other accepted species: Species Fungorum – search Lettauia.
Figure 1 – Lettauia hypotrachynae redrawn from Etayo (2002b). a Paraphyses. b Asci. c Ascospores. Scale bars: a, b = 10 μm, c = 5 μm.
References
Etayo J 2017 – Hongos liquenícolas de Ecuador. Opera Lilloana, 50, 1–535.
Entry by
Meng QF, Center of Excellence in Fungal Research, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, 57100, Thailand and School of Public Health, Zunyi Medical University, Guizhou 563000, China.
Published online 8 July 2026