Phylogenetic analyses using two fast evolving plastid markers (rps4, trnL‐F) reveal the occurrence of the Australasiatic liverwort genus Lobatiriccardia in the Neotropics. Two new species, Lobatiriccardia oberwinkleri and L. verdoornioides are reported from Ecuador. Phylogenetic reconstructions support Lobatiriccardia and Aneura as monophyletic sister groups and do not place Verdoornia as the first branching Aneuracean taxon but rather sister to Aneura and Lobatiriccardia, which is consistent with mycothallus development in Aneuraceae. Subsequently, Aneuraceae, as treated here, include Aneura, Lobati‐ riccardia, Riccardia, and Verdoornia. Although high levels of genetic structure can be observed among members of the Aneura pinguis complex, current species delimitations are questionable, and detailed analyses of cryptic speciation and biogeographic patterns are needed to understand the evolution of Aneura, with particular attention paid to the non‐photosynthetic species Aneura mirabilis. Ancestral state reconstructions suggest an evolutionary trend of female gametangia, and subsequently the sporophyte, moving from a central position on the dorsal side of the thallus (Verdoornia) to a marginal position between thallus lobes (Lobatiriccardia) to a more ventral (quasi latero‐ventral) position under the thallus margin (Aneura).
Aneura pinguis (Aneuraceae) is a cosmopolitan thalloid liverwort that shows a specific mycorrhiza-like interaction with basidiomycetes. To date, tropical specimens have not been studied in great depth. Samples of A. pinguis were collected from 48 individuals in one plot in South Ecuador and 54 individuals in five European countries. Light and transmission electron microscopy and molecular analyses based on nuclear rDNA coding for the ribosomal large subunit (nucLSU) and from the 5.8s-ITS2 regions were carried out to identify the associated mycobionts and to study their phylogenetic relationships. Microscopic and ultrastructural investigations of the fungal colonisation showed a high congruence between the European and the Ecuadorian sites and confirmed previous results. Tulasnellales are the only mycobionts that could be detected from ultrastructural characters with certainty. Molecular phylogenetic analysis indicated the presence of tulasnelloid fungi from at least 13 distinct clades. The composition of the communities of tulasnelloid fungi in A. pinguis differs between Ecuador and Europe. The diversity of tulasnelloid fungal partners was much higher at the Ecuadorian site.
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