Protostelids of Macquarie Island

Abstract

This is the first report of protostelids from Macquarie Island a small, oceanic island located 1000 km southeast of Tasmania, just north of the Antarctic Convergence. It is the southernmost locality from which they have been recovered. Litter samples collected under stands of Pleurophyllum hookeri and of Acaena spp. were plated out using standard techniques for protostelid identification. Six species were identified by sporocarp morphology using light microscopy, Protostelium mycophaga, P. nocturnum, Tychosporium acutostipes, Schizoplasmodiopsis pseudoendospora, Sc. amoeboidea, and Soliformovum irregularis. Amoebal and prespore cell morphology were used whenever necessary to corroborate identification. It is of interest that most of these six species rarely occur in litter in temperate ecosystems and that the Macquarie Island samples lack any typical litter species such as Nematostelium spp.

Key Words:

• Antarctic
• biogeography
• Eumycetozoa
• slime molds