Aderkomyces
Aderkomyces is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Gomphillaceae. Originally established in 1961 for a single species from Brazil, the genus was later expanded to include many species previously classified in the related genus Tricharia, all sharing distinctive white bristle-like structures and flattened fruiting bodies. Recent molecular studies suggest that Aderkomyces as currently defined may not represent a natural evolutionary group, leading to ongoing reclassification of many species into other genera.
Taxonomy
Aderkomyces was introduced in 1961 by the Brazilian mycologist Augusto Chaves Batista for a foliicolous lichen with fan-shaped, Aderkomyces couepiae. That species was later transferred to Tricharia as T. couepiae. In their family-wide revision of the family Gomphillaceae, Robert Lücking, Emmanuël Sérusiaux and Antonín Vězda resurrected Aderkomyces to accommodate a set of species previously placed in Tricharia that share white, often apothecia with a hyphal, and at least partly flabellate hyphophores. They treated a "core group" centred on the type A. couepiae and including Tricharia heterella, whose members characteristically have a smooth thallus, large applanate apothecia and flabelliform hyphophores.The same work outlined additional groupings now placed in Aderkomyces: one centred on T. cubana and T. guatemalensis with small, sessile, dark apothecia and an almost excipulum; a second around T. albostrigosa, with sessile, pale apothecia and a hyphal excipulum; and a residual set centred on T. cretacea whose relationships remain unclear owing to poorly known hyphophores and/or diahyphae. Overall, Aderkomyces is distinguished within the Echinoplaca–''Tricharia grade by its white setae, non-crystalline thallus and hyphal excipulum, whereas superficially similar Arthotheliopsis differs by having Echinoplaca-like adnate apothecia and slightly differentiated diahyphae.
As part of regularising the genus concept, Lücking and colleagues made numerous new combinations in Aderkomyces for species formerly placed in Tricharia, including A. albostrigosus, A. armatus, A. carneoalbus, A. cretaceus, A. cubanus, A. deslooveri, A. dilatatus, A. fumosus, A. heterellus and A. guatemalensis, among others. These changes reflect the shared suite that separates Aderkomyces from both Tricharia s.str. and allied genera within Gomphillaceae.
A 2024 morphology-based 'phylogenetic binning' analysis—assigning species to likely evolutionary groups from their traits—showed that Aderkomyces is polyphyletic, with its species split among multiple lineages. The type species, A. couepiae, binned with Arthotheliopsis, whereas a separate clade containing sequenced A. papilliferus and A. dilatatus represents Aderkomyces in the strict sense. The authors note that, if future sequencing confirms the type placement, Aderkomyces would apply to the Arthotheliopsis-like clade and the "papilliferus clade" would require a different generic name.
The same analysis reassigns several species previously placed in Aderkomyces to other genera now recognised in the family: e.g., A. heterellus, A. planus and A. pruinosus with Psathyromyces; A. albostrigosus, A. deslooveri, A. microcarpus, A. guatemalensis and A. verrucosus with Spinomyces; A. carneoalbus, A. purulhensis and A. lobulicarpus with Roselviria; A. microtrichus in the Calenia–Echinoplaca grade; A. verruciferus'' with mixed signal ; and several names remaining unresolved. Many of these transfers were formalised alongside the description of new genera in a companion work.
Species
, Species Fungorum accepts 28 species of Aderkomyces.- Aderkomyces armatus
- Aderkomyces brevipilosus
- Aderkomyces couepiae
- Aderkomyces cretaceus
- Aderkomyces cubanus
- Aderkomyces dilatatus
- Aderkomyces fumosus
- Aderkomyces gomezii
- Aderkomyces lobulimarginatus
- Aderkomyces papilliferus
- Aderkomyces ramiferus
- Aderkomyces rigidus
- Aderkomyces sikkimensis
- Aderkomyces subalbostrigosus
- Aderkomyces subplanus
- Aderkomyces testaceus
- ''Aderkomyces thailandicus''