- Source: Xalocoa
Xalocoa is a single-species fungal genus in the family Graphidaceae. The genus was circumscribed in 2013 by lichenologists Ekaphan Kraichak, Robert Lücking, and H. Thorsten Lumbsch. It contains Xalocoa ocellata, a corticolous (bark-dwelling), crustose lichen that was originally described by Elias Magnus Fries in 1831 (as Parmelia ocellata).
Xalocoa belongs to the subfamily Graphidoidae, and tribe Thelotremateae in the Graphidaceae. The genus is characterized by its greyish-white thallus covered by an epinecral layer, large apothecioid ascomata with exposed discs and thick, entire thalline margins, as well as a thin, reduced, uncarbonised proper exciple that lacks lateral paraphyses. The genus features a non-inspersed hymenium, pale brown, non-amyloid ascospores, bacilliform conidia, and contains the norstictic acid chemosyndrome. The genus name Xalocoa originates from the Catalan term xaloc, which signifies the sirocco, a warm wind that comes from the Sahara and affects Mediterranean regions. The species epithet pays tribute to Xavier Llimona, a Catalan researcher known for his work on Mediterranean lichens and his contributions to the taxonomy of the genus Diploschistes.