Genus

Limacospora

Species

sundica

Author

(Jorgen Koch & E.B.G. Jones) Jorg Koch & E.B.G. Jones, 1995. Can. J. bot., 73: 1010.

Class

Sordariomycetes, Subclass Hypocreomycetidae

Order

Microascales

Family

Halosphaeriaceae

Synonymy: = Ceriosporopsis sundica Jorg Koch & E.B.G. Jones, Nord. J. Bot., 6: 339 (1985).

Description

Type species:

Limacospora sundica (Jorgen Koch & E.B.G. Jones) Jorg Koch & E.B.G. Jones, 1995. Can. J. bot., 73: 1010.

= Ceriosporopsis sundica Jorg Koch & E.B.G. Jones, Nord. J. Bot., 6: 339 (1985).

Sexual morph: saprobic, ascomata: 270-675 µm high, 570-1080 µm broad, gregarious, immersed, deep seated, subglobose-ellipsoidal, ostiole with long neck extended to the surface of the wood, neck aperiphysate. Surrounding and bordering the ascomata there is a brown transitional zone 20-30-60 µm thick in which the substrate cells are not easily discernible. Peridium: 2-layered, an outer layer 16-20 µm at the base, thinning towards the apical region, consisting of hyaline, prismatic, nearly isodimetric cells (4-8 µm in diam.); an inner layer 60 µm thick at the base of the ascomata and again thinning out towards the neck region, composed of long, thin-walled often pointed cells, 20-40 x 8-10 µm, which are longer and broader towards the base of the ostiole. Melanisation of the outer peridial cells of old ascomata commences in the neck region and extend around the ascomata. Necks: up to 1500 µm long, 46-76µ m in diam. cylindrical, brown-black; outer layer of the neck 8-16 µm thick, consisting of slender prismatic cells (2-3 x 4-8 µm) merging with the hyaline small-celled tissue which forms the ostiolar channel. Asci: 90-140 x 24-28 µm, 8-spored, clavate, tapering, pedunculate, unitunicate, thin-walled, early deliquescing, in different stages of maturity in a hymenium on a sub-hymenial layer formed as a broad, flat cushion or a flat cup in the lower part of the ascomata cavity, interthecial filaments present. Paraphyses: absent. Ascospores: 19-24 x 8-10 µm, 1-septate, hyaline, ellipsoidal or broadly fusiform, slightly constricted around septum, hyaline, released in masses into ascomata cavity before emerging through neck, surrounded by a mucilaginous sheath, bounded by the delimiting membrane, which is constricted at the septum. Appendages: spores are enveloped in a granular sheath with polar appendages at either end which appear as outgrowths of the spore wall; polar appendages initially short (ca 28 µm) then becoming long and drawn out sometimes forming fine threads; the sheath and polar appendages swell in water to form a diffuse mass, are extremely sticky and adhere to substrata; the sheath is slightly constricted at the septum with radiating striations extending from the spore wall (Description based on Jones & Koch (1986)).

Key references:

Jones EBG, Koch J (1986) Ceriosporopsis sundica, a new lignicolous marine ascomycete from Denmark. Nord J Bot 6: 339 344.

Jones EBG, Koch J, McKeown TA, Moss ST (1995) Limacospora gen. nov. and a re-evaluation of Ceriosporopsis cambrensis. Canadian Journal of Botany 73(7):1010-1018.

Jones EBG, Suetrong S, Sakayaroj J, Bahkali AH, Abdel-Wahab MA, Boekhout T, Pang KL (2015) Classification of marine Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Blastocladiomycota and Chytridiomycota. Fungal Diversity 73: 1-72.

Maharachchikumbura SSN, Hyde KD, Jones EBG, Mckenzie EHC, Huang SK, Abdel-Wahab MA et al. (2015) Towards a natural classification and backbone tree for Sordariomycetes. Fungal Diversity 72: 199-299.

Maria GL, Sridhar KR (2002) Richness and diversity of filamentous fungi on woody litter of mangroves along the west coast of India. Current science 83: 1573-1580.

Maria GL, Sridhar KR (2003) Diversity of filamentous fungi on woody litter of five mangrove plant species from the southwest coast of India. Fungal Diversity 14: 109-126.

Nambiar GR, Raveendran K (2007) Estuaries marine mycoflora of North Malabar (Kerala). JK. Mar. Atmos. Res. 3:29-31.

Type & Location:

Other Specimens:

Substratum:

saprobic on intertidal wood, also intertidal mangrove wood.

Habitat:

Distribution:

Denmark, India?.

Pertinent Literature:

Comments:

NOTES: Limacospora sundica was initially referred to the genus Ceriosporopsis (Koch & Jones 1985) but an ultrastructural study of the ascospores and their appendages showed it differed markedly from the ascospores of the type species Ceriosporopsis halima (Jones et al. 1995). There are no living cultures of L. sundica and recollection, isolation and sequencing is required to determine its taxonomic classification. Jones et al. (2015) retain it as separate genus in the Halosphaeriaceae as does Maharachchikumbura et al. (2015). A rare species known only from its host locality in Denmark. The occurrence of L. sundica on intertidal wood and mangrove wood recorded in tropical marine waters of India by Maria & Sridhar (2002, 2003), and Nambiar & Raveendran (2007) is unlikely, because L. sundica was described on the basis of samples collected on partially immersed driftwood in temperate marine waters of the Danish coast (Jones & Koch 1985, Jones et al. 1995).

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