New Zealand myxomycetes

ABSTRACT

The myxomycetes (also called myxogastrids or plasmodial slime moulds) are a group of eumycetozoans long thought to be fungi because they produce somewhat similar (but structurally very different) fruiting bodies and occur in many of the same types of ecological situations. The first six species of myxomycetes were reported from New Zealand in 1855, but the specimens upon which these records were based had been collected more than a decade earlier. Since myxomycetes were long regarded as fungi, early records variably appeared on lists and in published works for the latter group of organisms. During the second half of the nineteenth century and the entire twentieth century, information on New Zealand myxomycetes has increased, with 1992 marking publication of first relatively complete checklist and the author’s first collecting trip to the country. All earlier records of myxomycetes were based on specimens that had developed in the field under natural conditions, but the checklist also included the first records based on specimens obtained from moist chamber cultures. A comprehensive and detailed monograph (entitled Myxomycetes of New Zealand and published by Fungal Diversity Press) of the approximately 185 species then known from New Zealand was published in 2003. A number of additional species have been added to this total during the past twenty years. Because myxomycetes remain unfamiliar organisms to most people, information is provided on their biology, their relatively complex life cycle, and ecological distribution in nature.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecology; distribution; fruiting body; history; life cycle; moist chamber cultures; slime moulds

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank all of the people who assisted in the collecting I carried out in New Zealand. Special appreciation is extended to my wife, who my constant companion on many of my visits to various regions of the country. Clive Shirley contributed some of the images used in this paper and Carlos Rojas prepared the map used for Figure 6.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

My field work in New Zealand was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society.