180 Transactions British Mycological Society

CHEILTMENIA PALLIDA SP.NOV. FROMNEW ZEALAND

BY AN N BELL AND R . W. G. DENNIS

Botany Department, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand,and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Cheilymenia pallida Bell & Dennis sp.nov.Apotheciis ( '5-3 mm diametro, sessilibus. Receptaculis turbinatis, bubalinis, pilis

rig idis, brunneis, sparsis ciliatis. Hymenio pallido. Thecis cylind ratis, operculatis,octosporis, uniseriatis, 185 x 8 fLm. Ascosporis longe ellipsoideis, hyalinis, eguttulatis,laevibus, tunica facile caduca circumdatis. Paraphysibus rectis, simplicibus, supernepaulo dilatatis, septatis, intus granulosis, hyalinis. Pilis septatis, laevibus, acutis,plerumque radiculis penitus in trama natis, Carne interiore e strato hypharum laxeintertexto sistente, exteriore e cellulis globosis, parietibus tenuibus. Sparsa vel gregariain stercoribus Trichosuri uulpeculae. Orongorongo Valley, Wellington, Nova Zelandia,7-8 Nov. 1970, leg. A. Bell, typus (K).

Apothecia scattered or gregarious, 1'5-3 mm diameter. Disk flat, palewhitish-buff (code 5Y8/2 using the' Standard Soil Color Chart' publishedby the Nippon Shikaisha Co. Ltd., Japan), receptacle a darker buff(2'5Y 7/4) shading to brown (2'5Y 6/6) at a stout base, clothed at thetop with stiff, brown, septate rooting hairs . The latter are variable innumber and sometimes apparently absent. However, microscopical exam­ination of an apparently hairless apothecium usually reveals septate, brownrooting hairs of greatly reduced size are present. The bases of the rootinghairs are variable in shape, sometimes distinctly forked, as in Cheilymeniacoprinaria (Cooke) Boud., sometimes simple or bulbous (Fig. I B). Hyalinehyphal outgrowths, composed of a chain of bulbous thin-walled cells aresometimes present (Fig. I A). In quantity they form a loose tomentumradiating from the apothecium, giving it a woolly appearance (Fig. I D) .In such specimens brown rooting hairs are generally sparse.

The rooting hairs are straight, 200-800 pm long, approximately 40 pmin diameter at the base tapering gradually to a sharp-pointed apex andhaving four to twenty-eight, thin, transverse septa. The hair walls are darkbrown (especially at the base), and approximately 4 pm thick. The ectalexcipulum is built of large subglobose or polygonal cells, sharply de­lineated from an inner medullary region of smaller, irregular cells inter­spersed with hyphae of no obvious orientation (Fig. I A). A few largercells in the outer medullary region have contents which appear denserdue to their ability to retain the staining material (safranin and fastgreen). Asci cylindrical 185 x 8 pm, tapering to a narrow base with abluntly rounded apex, and containing eight uniseriately arranged asco­spores. Ascospore oblong-ellipsoidal 8-12 x 5-6 pm, smooth walled, hya­line without oil globul es and with a delicate outer wall separable whenheated in lactic acid (Fig. I C). Paraphyses 4 pm in diameter, with afew septa, slightly enlarged apex and containing hyaline granules;carotinoid pigment not found.

Trans. Br. mycol. Soc. 57 (I), (1971). Printed in Great Britain

Notes and Brief Articles

ao 0

I ,

L.J

10 JIm

B

L-J20 JIm

A

0C)

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C

181

Fig. I. A-D, Cheilymenia pallida. A, Longitudinal section through a mature apothecium(arrows indicate non-rooting hair), B, bases of rooting hairs; C, asci, ascopores andparaphyses; D, habit sketch of three apothecia, one of which has few rooting hairs (seetext).

Trans. Br, mycol. Soc. 57 (I), (1971). Printedin Great Britain

182 Transactions British Mycological SocietyHabitat: faecal pellets of the brush-tailed opossum, Trichosurus oulpecula

Kerr., collected on the ground in indigenous lowland forests, OrongorongoValley, near Wellington New Zealand. In the laboratory, under humidconditions and at room temperatures (10-24 °C), apothecia appear onpellets after an average of 24 incubation (range: 7-40 days).

ACAULOPAGE TETRACEROS IN AQUATIC HABITATS

D.PARK

Department of Botany, The Queen's University, Belfast

Acaulopag« tetraceros was described by Drechsler (1935) from old soilisolation plates. Jones & Peach (1959) described a variety which differedfrom the type in having conidia less markedly wedge-shaped, with agreater length to breadth ratio, and with fewer distal appendages. Thisvariety, A. tetraceros var. longa, was usually found in ponds and streams,whereas the type preferred less wet environments.

Since September 1969 I have at regular intervals incubated Petri dishesof water containing organic material from river beds or baits of cabbagehalf-cotyledons brought into the laboratory after being 1-3 days in naturalwaters. A. tetraceros has appeared on the surface of the incubation water ofnearly every one of these dishes kept for longer than 3weeks at either 16°Cor at laboratory temperature (20-23°). The species rarely appears beforethe end of 2 weeks of incubation, and this may be one of the reasons whyit has not been recorded more frequently from watery habitats. An addi­tional reason may be the popularity of hemp seed as baiting material. Thesmaller baits used here restrict the vigour of Saprolegnia and Achlya de­velopment and permit the better observation and possibly the betterdevelopment of other less obvious organisms. Aphanomyces, Peronospora andPythium species all appear more commonly on cabbage cotyledon than onhemp seed in my collections.

Under the conditions described, the conidia of A. tetraceros that float atthe water surface near the incubated material are of the form describedby Jones & Peach as A. tetraceros var. longa. Two empty appendages areusual; one occurs on some spores, but the conidia are clearly those ofA. tetraceros not of A. rhicnospora or of A. ceratospora. Less commonly threeor four appendages are present. Sometimes, instead of there being fourappendages in a ring, there was a double dichotomy below the level of theappendages.

Observation of the incubated material for some time before A. tetracerosconidia first appear shows that the fungus traps amoebae before it sporu­lates. The amoebae do not develop well in Petri dishes until the bacterialflora has developed, mainly on surfaces or interfaces (water-solid, as onthe Petri dish base, or water-air, as in the surface film, where observationis most easy). Because the fungus depends on this earlier succession, timeis an important attribute in its detection. My experience has been that if

Trans. Br. mycol. Soc. 57 (I), (1971). Printed in Great Britain