Lecidella was circumscribed by German lichenologist Gustav Wilhelm Körber in 1855.

[2] It was not widely used until more than a century later, when Hannes Hertel recognized it first as a subgenus of Lecidea,[3] and then a couple of year after as a distinct genus.

[5] Lecidella species have a thallus that is crustose, and biatorine, meaning that it resembles the genus Biatora–having a proper exciple, which is not coal-black (carbonised, but coloured or blackening.

[6] Morphologically similar genera include Japewiella, Carbonea, and Tasmidella.

[7] Lecidella was estimated to contain about 80 species in a popular 2008 text,[8] a number that was used in a (2020) survey of fungal classification.