Os caranguejos de água doce estão alocados em cinco famílias e apenas duas tem ocorrência para o Brasil: Pseudothelphusidae e Trichodactylidae. Trichodactylus , gênero-tipo da família Trichodactylidae e alocado em Trichodactylinae, foi descrito por Latreille, 1828 para acomodar uma única espécie, T. fluviatilis. Baseado na hipótese de que Trichodactylus não é um grupo monofilético foi realizada uma extensiva amostragem morfológica e molecular. A Inferência filogenética com dois genes mitocondriais (16S rRNA e COI) e um nuclear (Histona 3) mostrou claramente que Trichodactylus não é monofilético. Foram encontradas três grandes linhagens em ambas as análises (Inferência Bayesiana e Máxima Verossimilhança), sendo T. quinquedentatus mais proximamente relacionado com espécies de Avotrichodactylus. O tempo de divergência entre essas linhagens foi estimado em 38 a 53 Ma. Nesse estudo, dez novas espécies pertencentes ao complexo Trichodactylus foram descritas. Adicionalmente, uma espécie e um gênero revalidado. Nesse estudo, portanto, a subfamília Trichodactylinae é composta pelos seguintes gêneros: Avotrichodactylus , Mikrotrichodactylus , Rodriguezia e Trichodactylus . Além disso, a designação de neótipo para T. fluviatilis é de fundamental importância, uma vez que, a série tipo foi perdida. O uso em conjunto e comparativo de diferentes ferramentas, tais como a molecular e morfológica, permitiu reconhecer que a biodiversidade de caranguejos de água doce no Brasil ainda está subestimada / The freshwater crabs are allocated in five families and only two of them have occurrence for Brazil: Pseudothelphusidae and Trichodactylidae. Trichodactylus , the genus-type of the family Trichodactylidae and allocated in Trichodactylinae, was described by Latreille, 1828 to accommodate a single species, T. fluviatilis. Based on the hypothesis that Trichodactylus is not a monophyletic group we realized an extensive morphological and molecular sampling. Phylogenetic inference based on two mitochondrial (16S rRNA e COI) and one nuclear (Histone 3) genes clearly indicated that Trichodactylus is not monophyletic. Were found three great lineages in both analysis (Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood), being T. quinquedentatus more closely related to species of Avotrichodactylus . The time of divergence between these lineages was estimated at 38 to 53 Ma. In this study, nine new species belonging to the T. fluviatilis complex were described. Additionally, one species and one genus were revalidated. Therefore, in this study, the subfamily Trichodactylinae is composed by the following genus: Avotrichodactylus , Mikrotrichodactylus , Rodriguezia e Trichodactylus . Furthermore, we show that the designation of a neotype for T. fluviatilis is strongly needed, since that its type series has been lost. The joint and comparative use of different tools, such as molecular and morphological, allowed us to recognize that the biodiversity of freshwater crabs in Brazil is still very underestimated

1 Abstract Forests are the native Central European vegetation, which have dominated in the landscape for the last c. 10,000 years. Stands with an oak and hornbeam dominance occupied lower elevations before human colonization, beech and silver fir-beech forests middle elevations and spruce stands at higher elevations. Only a few remnants of forests, which can be regarded as primeval or with a minimal impact of forest management, have survived in densely populated Central Europe. Examples of the most preserved primeval forests are Rothwald (Austria), Białowieża (Poland, Belorussia), Stužica/Stuzhytsia (Slovakia, Ukraine) and Boubín (Czech Republic). Although these sites are small and isolated, they are local diversity centers for many organisms, mainly for fungi, lichens and bryophytes, refugia for numerous endangered species and some of them have their last localities there. Epiphytic and epixylic lichens are an ideal model group for studies about forests because they sensitively indicate management, continuity, heterogeneity and age of a woodland. Therefore they could help us to answer many important questions about the conservation of natural forests. This thesis comprises several different points of view on lichens in Central European forests and its aim is to join these heterogeneous fields into one...