Abstract
To reevaluate two dictyostelid species, namely, Polysphondylium pallidum and P. album, 92 isolates of the P. pallidum complex from their type localities were examined based on mating relationships and morphological characteristics. In the mating tests three heterothallic mating groups were found among the isolates. They also were different morphologically from each other. These results suggested that they belonged to distinct taxa. By comparison of the three mating groups with the type specimens of P. pallidum and P. album, two of them were identified as P. pallidum and P. album. Based on the examined isolates P. pallidum and P. album were redescribed in detail.
We are greatly indebted to Drs E.W. Wood and W.T. Kittredge, the Farlow Reference Library and Herbarium of Cryptogamic Botany, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, for the loan of Olive’s specimens. We thank Mr G.M. Shankerdas, father of Mr K. Shankerdas, honorary consul of the Consulate of Japan, Sierra Leone, for his wholehearted cooperation. Also we thank Mr H.M. James, commissioner of the Consulate of Japan, for making thoughtful arrangements for second author’s research in Sierra Leone. The present study was supported in part by the grant from the Fujiwara Natural History Foundation.