Abstract
Two new species of Porina are presently described as new to science in the frame of a corticolous lichens survey in the Atlantic rainforest of Pernambuco State, in Northeastern Brazil. The type locality, known as Brejo dos Cavalos, is a so-called Brejo de Altitude, an Atlantic forest fragment located in the municipality of Caruaru, in the middle of the semiarid Caatinga: Porina ochraceocarpa Sobreira, Aptroot & M. Cáceres, with small, free, pale brown ascomata and fusiform 3-septate ascospores of 30–32 × 4.5–5 μm., and Porina purpurata Sobreira, Aptroot & M. Cáceres, with hemispherical thallus-covered ascomata that are mostly centrally covered with red, K+ purple pruina, and fusiform (3–)7-septate ascospores of 50–55 × 10–11 μm. The discovery of these unique taxa emphasizes the importance of thorough surveys of the lichen biota in the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil, a very biodiverse and threatened biome.