Freshwater Ascomycetes - Species Monograph

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Genus	Species	Author
Fluviatispora	reticulata	K.D. Hyde
Class	Order	Family
Sordariomycetes	Inc. sed.	Inc. sed.

Synonymy:

Description

Habit:

Ascomata on wood scattered to solitary, partly immersed to superficial.

Ascomata:

Ascomata 320–370 x 255–280 µm, superficial to partially immersed, solitary, scattered, globose to subglobose, dark brown, membranous, ostiolate with a cylindrical to conical neck.

Peridium:

Peridium 15-20 µm wide, composed of an outer layer of elongated, compressed dark brown cells and an inner region of 2–4 cell layers wide of elongated, compressed hyaline cells; cells 2 ´ 3 µm wide.

Beak:

Neck 50–100 x 15-–20 µm, periphyses not seen, composed of thin- walled pseudoparenchymatic cells.

Hamathecium:

Hamthecium not seen.

Ascus:

Asci 52–60 x 30–38 µm, unitunicate, broadly clavate, tapering to a pointed stalk, thin-walled, deliquescent, with eight irregularly arranged ascospores.

Ascospore:

Ascospores 20-–25 x 8–12 µm, (mean = 23 x 10 µm, n = 40), unicellular, ellipsoidal, uni-or biguttulate with many small lipid globules, echinulate, surrounded by an irregular mucilaginous sheath.

Sheath:

Sheath irregular, mucilaginous, ca. 5–6 µm wide at the sides of the ascospore; surface of sheath stains in aqueous nigrosin.

Appendage:

None observed.

Culture:

Anamorph:

None reported.

Other info

Type & Location:

Papua New Guinea: Western Province, Bensbach, Bensbach River, in frons submersa Livistona sp., May 1992, K.D. Hyde 1378, BRIP 21392.

Other Specimens:

USA. FLORIDA: Blackwater River State Forest, Bone Creek, 30° 44'19"N, 86°46'29"W, UTM 16 521565E 3400646N, water temperature 25 C, pH 6.7, on submerged, decorticated woody debris, 10 July 2004, HAR and CB, F11-5; Horns Creek swampy area, 30°46'31"N, 86°54'43"W, water temperature 30 C, pH 6, on submerged, decorticated woody debris, 10 July 2004, HAR and CB, F11-7; Apalachicola National Forest, unnamed lake east of Lost Lake, 30°21'48"N, 84°22'56"W, water temperature 35 C, pH 7.3, on submerged, decorticated woody debris, 13 July 2004, HAR and CB, F11-1; Andrew Lake, 30°24'09"N, 84°24'27"W, water temperature 33 C, pH 6.5, on submerged, decorticated woody debris, 13 July 2004, HAR and CB, F11-2; Rowletts Creek, 30°03'32"N, 85° 01'11"W, water temperature 35 C, pH 5, on submerged, decorticated woody debris, 10 July 2006, HAR and JLC F11-8; Camel Pond, 30°16'36"N, 84°59'20"W, water temperature 33 C, pH 5, on submerged, decorticated woody debris, 10 July 2006, HAR and JLC, F11-9; Ocala National Forest, Mary Lake, 29°04'23"N, 81°49'57"W, water temperature 33 C, pH 5, on submerged, decorticated woody debris, 10 July 2006, HAR and CB, F11-3; 16 July 2006, HAR and JLC F11-10; Fore Lake, 29°16'17"N, 81°55'03"W, water temperature 37 C, pH 6.6, on submerged, decorticated woody debris, 16 July 2004, HAR and CB, F11-4.

Substratum:

Livistoma frond; submerged woody debris.

Habitat:

Lotic, lentic.

Distribution:

Brunei, Papua New Guinea, USA (FL).

Pertinent Literature:

Hyde 1994; Raja 2007; Raja & Shearer 2008

Comments:

Pictures, description and comments from H. Raja 2008. Currently three species are accepted in the genus Fluviatispora K.D. Hyde (Hyde 1994, Fryar and Hyde 2004). Following Fryar and Hyde (2004) the species from Florida keys out to F. reticulata K.D. Hyde (Hyde 1994). The ascospores of the specimen from Florida are slightly longer and narrower (20-–25 ´ 8–12 µm) than those of the type species (17–23 ´ 10–13 µm) (Hyde 1994). In addition, the ascospores of the Florida material are biguttulate, as opposed to a single large eccentric guttule reported in the type species (Hyde 1994). We have collected F. reticulata nine times from three of five collection sites in north and central Florida in lotic and lentic habitats. It occurred during the summer in two successive years at water temperatures ranging from 25–37 C and at pH 5–7, only on woody substrates.

Additional Pictures

Unstained ascus in water.
Ascospore sheath stained in aqueous nigrosin.
Unexpanded ascospore sheath.
Empty ascus.
Ascus.

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