Myxomycete history and taxonomy: highlights from the past, present, and future

Abstract

The past myxomycete legacy covers fruiting bodies preserved in fossil amber more than 35 million years ago and early contributions by Linnaeus, de Bary, and the Listers at the British Museum of Natural History (BM), among whom the Listers introduced monographs, striking watercolors, and more narrow species concepts. Macbride and Martin (University of Iowa) published illustrated myxomycete monographs with broader species concepts. The transfer of the ∼9500 specimen Iowa myxomycete collection to the United States National Fungus Collections (BPI) is outlined and ∼234 type specimens are listed. Also covered is Lado's recent Nomenmyx and the online resource nomen. eumycetozoa. com, which offers ∼900 names for accepted myxomycete species. The current status of the BM and BPI myxomycete collections is noted, and Didymium saturnus provides an example of data associated with myxomycete specimens in the American Type Culture Collection. Problematic taxa are recommended for DNA sequencing to help clarify phylogenetic relationships.

A new iridescent corticolous myxomycete species (Licea: Liceaceae: Liceales) and crystals on American elm tree bark in Texas, U.S.A.

“…Few new species were discovered and described until Gilbert and Martin (1933) introduced the moist chamber culture technique used to study and isolate myxomycetes from the bark of living trees. Henry C. Gilbert was a student of Professor George W. Martin while working in the Mycology Laboratory at the University of Iowa (Keller 2012). In another paper, Gilbert (1934) described three corticolous myxomycete species new to science: Macbrideola scintillans, M. decapillata (Macbrideola is a commemorative generic name for Thomas H. Macbride a world famous myxomycetologist and former President of the University of Iowa), and Hymenobolina pedicellata currently considered Licea pedicellata (H.C. Gilbert) H.C. Gilbert.…”

Some Mycomycetes from Telangana State, India

“…Myxomycetes are known to colonize diversified habitats from all over the world (Keller, 2012;dela et al, 2014 Lakhanpal and Mukerji (1981), Thind (1977), Nanir (2011a,b, 2012), and Ranade et al (2012) have contributed significantly to the understanding of slime molds from India. Manoharachary et al (2012) and Manoharachary and Rajithasri (2015) have reported 15 myxomycetes from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states.…”