New species and first records of trichomycetes from immature aquatic insects in Idaho

Abstract

Trichomycetes, or gut fungi, are currently recognized as an ecological group of fungi and protists that inhabit the guts of immature insects or other stages and types of arthropods. The geographic distribution of these endosymbionts is worldwide. However trichomycete data from the Pacific Northwest are limited and this is the first account of gut fungi in Idaho. We report on the trichomycetes from a single site, Cottonwood Creek at Military Reserve Park, Boise, Idaho, where periodic surveys for more than a year resulted in the discovery of four newly named, three probably new but unnamed and 15 previously known species. Among the Harpellales three new species, Capniomyces sasquatchoides, Harpella torus and Lancisporomyces lampetriformis, are described, with two possibly new species of Smittium detailed but unnamed at this time pending further collections. A Genistelloides cf. hibernus also is included as a possible new species. One new species of Amoebidiales, Paramoebidium hamatum, is described as well. Hosts in which the gut fungi were recovered include larvae or nymphs of Diptera (Chironomidae and Simuliidae), Ephemeroptera (Baetidae) and Plecoptera (Capniidae and Taeniopterygidae). We hope to demonstrate that future surveys or bioprospecting investigations into the biodiversity of these early-diverging fungi in this region and worldwide remain promising.

• aquatic insects
• Harpellaceae
• Kickxellomycotina
• Legeriomycetaceae
• symbiosis
• Zygomycota

Acknowledgments

Support for the survey and collection-based aspect of this research was provided in part by funds to MMW from the College of Arts and Sciences, Boise State University.

Financial support for subsequent bench work and study of slide vouchers, especially for the extensive morphometrics assessment phase of this study, also was provided via NSF REVSYS award DEB-0918182 to MMW, for which we submit this as an initial biodiversity contribution from Idaho.

Thanks to thesis committee members Drs Peter Koetsier, Ian Robertson and Jim Smith for their involvement and guidance in MEB’s research and versions of the manuscript. Also a special thanks to Dr P. Koetsier for shared lab space during data collecting and analyses. Dr Augusto Siri graciously shared his unpublished images and data on Harpella sp. from Argentina. Emma Wilson and Prasanna Kandel provided helpful comments and lively discussion regarding some of our taxonomic decisions, which stabilized our position and with comments also from Eric Tretter and Justin Gause improved the final manuscript; Kandel also helped with the final plate adjustments. In addition we thank Barbara Langehennig for help with sorting and dissecting a few of the earliest collections. Carolyn Bird, Chester, Nova Scotia, kindly provided the Latin and offered many valuable comments on the translations. We also greatly appreciate the taxonomic expertise of several biologists who helped identify trichomycete hosts: Drs Peter Adler (Simuliidae), Murray H. Colbo (Chironomidae) and Boris Kondratieff (Plecoptera and Ephemeroptera). Vouchers of blackflies that were identified have been deposited with Dr Adler’s Clemson University Arthropod collection.