Epitypification of Lyngbya Confervoides C.Agardh Ex Gomont (cyanobacteria) after Two Centuries of Troubled Taxonomy and the Description of Okeania Gaditana Sp. Nov.

The cyanobacterial genus Lyngbya was once thought to be a cosmopolitan genus, inhabiting nearly every biome across the globe. However, utilization of genetic, and more recently genomic, sequencing has revealed that this morphologically homogenous taxon in fact comprises distinct evolutionary clades, leading to the plethora of newly described Cyanobacterial genera split from Lyngbya. Despite this, no comparisons can be made to L. confervoides, and thus begging the question: who is Lyngbya? To answer this, we collected cyanobacterial tufts from intertidal pools in Cádiz, Spain, in line with the original descriptions of L. confervoides from Agardh and Gomont. Morphological and genetic characterization were conducted on two Lyngbya-like strains isolated from the type location. We identified strain BLCC-M349 to match the original description and iconograph, thereby designating it as the epitype of L. confervoides with BLCC-M349 serving as the reference strain. The descriptions of both Lyngbya and L. confervoides are emended and sequences of the 16S rRNA gene, the 16S-23S ITS rRNA region, and the genome are provided. Additionally, we describe a novel species of Okeania as well as synonymize select species of Capilliphycus to Lyngbya.