The genus Alwisia (Myxomycetes) revalidated, with two species new to science

Abstract

Based on morphological investigations and a phylogeny constructed with partial sequences of the SSU rDNA gene, we revalidate the genus Alwisia and propose the combination Alwisia bombarda Berk. & Broome to be used against Tubifera bombarda (Berk. & Broome) G.W. Martin. Two new species, Alwisia morula and A. repens, are described based on material collected respectively in Costa Rica and Australia. Both new species lack a capillitium and possess individually stalked subspherical sporothecae. Alwisia repens differs from A. morula by its procumbent stalks and iridescent peridium. A comparison of 83 sequences of species in the genera Lycogala, Reticularia and Tubifera with a recent two-gene phylogeny of the bright-spored myxomycetes resulted in a similar topology of both Bayesian and maximum likelihood trees and placed A. bombarda, A. morula and A. repens in one well delimited clade within Reticulariaceae.

• Alwisia morula
• A. repens
• Australia
• Costa Rica
• myxomycetes
• 18S rDNA sequences

Acknowledgments

The research reported herein was supported by a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) grant A/12/04515 and the Fulbright Scholar Program grant 68130017 to the first author. For help with lab work, we thank Anja Klahr and Eva Heinrich (Greifswald). We also thank L. Monje and A. Pueblas (Gabinete Fotografía, Universidad de Alcalá) for help with the digital processing of the photographs, J.A. Pérez and A. Priego (Servicio de Microscopía Electrónica, Univ. Alcalá) for their invaluable help with the SEM. For loans of specimens we are indebted to Marianne Meyer (Rognaix, France) and Yuri K. Novozhilov (St Petersburg, Russia). Field work in Australia by Stephenson was supported in part by ABRS grant 211-06. Particular thanks are extended to Teresa van der Heul for sending her collections to Stephenson, thus setting in motion the study that led to this paper, and the very useful comments of two anonymous reviewers.