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have also impacted local flora. Despite all of this, Sicily has kept an over-
whelming beauty of the landscape and an impressive cultural richness.

During a trip around the island in August 2006 we visited several sites of
special lichenological interest. The most important were the slopes on Mount
Etna, with the large fields of lava boulders of different age, the limestone rocks
of the Madonie mountains and the relict forests between Cefalù, Enna and Cor-
leone. One of the richest visited sites is the “Bosco della Ficuzza”, a grazed cop-
pice forest of mainly oaks and ashes near Corleone in the windward of a high
crest that causes exceptional humidity.

The lichenological exploration of the island reaches back to the 19th cen-
tury, but records of lichenicolous fungi are rare. Some information could be
found in the papers of NIMIS et al. (1994) on the Marettimo island, VAN DEN
BOOM (1992), GRILLO and GRILLO et al. (1989, 1993, 1995, 1996, and 2004) as well
as in different monographs on lichenicolous fungi. As the literature is extremely
scattered, we can not be not sure, if all our statements “new for Sicily” are cor-
rect. Some of the species may also be new for Italy, but we hesitate to indicate
them as “new to Italy” as long as we don’t have a sufficient overview on the
literature.

Material and Methods

The specimens were studied macroscopically with a Zeiss stereo micro-
scope at magnifications up to x40 and microscopically with an Olympus BX 51
microscope fitted with Normarski differential interference contrast optics.
Measurements were taken on thin hand-cut sections mounted in water using an
Olympus C 5060 digital camera and Quickphoto Camera 2.1 software. Conidial
measurements of Phoma are indicated as (minimum–) X-σX – X+σX (–maxi-
mum) followed by the number of measurements; the length/breadth ratio of
conidia is indicated as l/b and given in the same way. The specimens are de-
posited in the private herbarium of the author at the Institut für Vegetations-
kunde und Landschaftsökologie (hb IVL), the isotype of Phoma ficuzzae in M.

Results

The underlined numbers 1 – 21 indicate the localities described below. All
specimens have been collected by W. & G. V. BRACKEL and identified by the au-
thor.

Arthonia galactinaria LEIGHT.
12: on Lecanora dispersa agg. (hb IVL 3944).

Arthonia galactinaria is widespread and quite common in Europe, and is
also known from North America, northern Africa, and New Zealand. It seems to

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