Taxonomic Study On The Lichen Family Megasporaceae From Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

The lichen family Megasporaceae is subordinated to Pertusariales under Lecanoromycetes, Ascomycota. six genera(Aspicilia, Circinaria, Lobthallia, Megaspora, Sagedia, and Teuvoa) and more than 300 species have been reported wordwide. Most of the species are saxicolous and are widely distributed.Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, commonly known as Inner Mongolia, is a province of China's northern border. It lies between latitude 37°24? and 53°23?N, and longitude 126°04? and 97°12?E, and extends across northeast, north and northwest China. The whole region is in the Higher ground and average altitude is about 1000 meters. This region locates in internal Eurasia, and it belongs to temperate continental monsoon climate, what's more, the annual precipitation decreases gradually from the northeast to west. Therefore, arid and semiarid areas are main areas in the region. The forest resources are mianly composed of xeric arbors and shrubs, especially in the northeast area, while the grasslands occur in the central and western parts of Inner Mongolia. This environment is quite suitable for the growth of the family Megasporaceae.This research has been made using a comprehensive analysis of morphological, anatomical, and chemical methods on more than 500 specimens collected from Inner Mongolia conserved in Lichen section of Shandong Normal University(SDNU) and Herbarium of Mycology, Academia Sinica(HMAS-L). Twenty-one species are reported belonging to four genera of Megasporaceae in this paper, four species of them are new to china: Aspicilia calcitrapa, A. dudinensis, A. pacifica and A. tephra, in addition, and seven new to Inner Mongolia.This research systematically reports the species composition and local distribution of the lichen family Megasporacea. A detailed description of all the species reported in this thesis is provided according to their morphology, anatomy, chemistry and distribution. At the same time, each species is discussed with its similar species and its morphological photo is also provided, four species new to china are provided whith additionally anatomical photos. The study perfected the key characters of some species, which have been reported by other scholars and collected again in this region. Meanwhile, this research increased the species numbers of Megasporacea occurring in the Inner Mongolia and added new distribution locations of some species which had been reported by other lichenologists in China.This study enriched the distribution data of Megasporaceae lichens in the Inner Mongolia, provided relieble data and information for the further study of the intergeneric and interspecific relationships within Megasporaceae.