Preliminary results are presented of a project aiming to explore the lichen biodiversity in Sri Lanka. The following mostly corticolous (one saxicolous) new species are described: Arthonia karunaratnei with dark brown, round apothecia in groups that are surrounded by a bright orange area, with ascospores 2-septate, 9.0–10.5 × 3.5–4.5 μm; Enterographa wijesundarae with sessile, pruinose apothecia with thin margins that are higher than the disc, with ascospores 13–17-septate, 50–60 × 4.5–5.5 μm, without substances; Fellhanera stipitata with convex, brown apothecia, fusiform to clavate, 5–7-septate ascospores of 21–24.5 × 2.0–2.5 μm, and sessile to tubular pycnidia with conidia 4.5–5.5 × 1.5–2.0 μm; Malmidea plicata which is similar to M. vinosa but with folded thallus and smaller ascospores; Phlyctis lueckingii with ca. 0.2–0.3 mm large, grey-pruinose apothecia in dense groups and fusiform 7-septate ascospores of 27–29 × 5.5–6.5 μm; thallus with norstictic acid.; Porina viridipustulata with numerous pustules of ca. 0.2–0.7 mm diam. and ca. 0.1–0.3 mm high and ascospores 3–7-septate, 57–60 × 12–13 μm; Stirtonia isidiata with glossy white thallus with isidia, which are partly globose but mostly irregularly cylindrical, often with some constrictions or branching, usually gnarled and decumbent, generally ca. 0.2–0.3 mm thick and up to ca. 2 mm long; ascigerous areas apothecium-like, sessile; ascus with 1 ascospore, ca. 250 × 150 μm; ascospores hyaline, broadly fusiform 7–9-septate, 210–225 × 105–115 μm.; and Trypetheliopsis hirsuta with black, ear-shaped, pointed, glossy campylidia of ca. 0.4–0.9 mm diam., ca. 0.5–1.2 mm high, at the outside with black bristles. Furthermore, 88 lichen species are newly recorded from Sri Lanka, including 55 species new for the Indian subcontinent. Interestingly, eight of these are first reports from the whole of the Palaeotropics. These species were previously known only from either Costa Rica or the Amazonian and/or Atlantic rain forest of Brazil.