Lycogala uviforme W. L. Song, Yang Gao & Shuang L. Chen, Leontyev & Z. Edwards, 2025

Song, Wen-Long, Jiang, Zi-Qiong, Li, Min, Leontyev, Dmytro, Gao, Yang & Chen, Shuang-Lin, 2025, Comprehensive revision of Lycogala (Myxomycetes) in subtropical China: morphological and phylogenetic insights and ten new species, IMA Fungus 16, pp. e 147535-e 147535 : e147535-

Lycogala uviforme W. L. Song, Yang Gao & Shuang L. Chen, Leontyev & Z. Edwards sp. nov.

Fig. 16

GenBank accession numbers.

PQ 685905 (SSU).

Etymology.

Uva (Latin) bunch of grapes, referring to the aggregation of peridial vesicles.

Diagnosis.

Differs from L. botrydium by sporocarps more or less regular in shape, covered with dark brown reticulum of aggregated vesicles, by thick and distinguishable vesicle walls, and by capillitium densely ornamented by pits, forming a prominent reticulate pattern.

Description.

Sporocarps scattered, spherical or slightly ovoid, 1.4–2.9 mm in diameter. Peridium relatively thick, deep warm brown, covered by vesicles that form a dense dark reticulum, through the gaps of which the lighter peridium is visible. The inner surface of the peridium is smooth. Vesicles under RL matt, dark grayish-brown, under TL deep warm brown, ovoid, angular by mutual pressure, (55 –) 60–85 (– 100) μm in diameter, clustered in elongate, ovoid to fusiform aggregates with 2–5 vesicles across the group, often merged to form a reticulum. Vesicle walls conspicuous, rather thick (2–5 µm). Crystals absent. Oil droplets numerous, irregular in shape, filling up to half of the vesicles space. Capillitium tubular, hyaline under TL, (3.7 –) 4.5–6.3 (– 9.5) μm in diameter, with smooth contours, densely ornamented by numerous pits, which form a prominent reticulate pattern, better visible under SEM. Spore mass in old collections light yellow with ochraceous undertones, hyaline under TL, (5.5 –) 5.7–6.0 (– 6.3) μm in diameter, reticulate, with 5–7 meshes across diameter, unornamented area occupies 1 / 4–1 / 2 of the spore surface. Plasmodium unknown.

Distribution.

Currently known only from China and USA.

Habitat.

On rotten wood.

Holotype.

CHINA • Hubei Province: Xingshan County, on rotten wood, 24 Jun 2017, collected by Yang Gao ( HFNNU 11239 ).

Additional specimens examined.

CHINA • Jiangsu Province: Lao Mountain National Forest Park , 32.1191°N, 118.6341°E, on rotten wood, 24 Jul 2015, collected by Yang Gao ( HFNNU 11240 ) . • Hubei Province: Xingshan County, on rotten wood, 24 Jun 2017, collected by Yang Gao ( HFNNU 11241 ) . • Jiangxi Province: Lu Mountain National Nature Reserve , 29.5669°N, 115.9941°E, on rotten wood, 16 Jul 2022, collected by Yang Gao ( HFNNU 11242 ) . • USA. Maine: Cumberland County, environs of Standish, in conifer area within mixed hardwood , 43.6906°N, 70.6056°W, on dead, barkless hardwood log, 24 Jul 2023, collected by Zachariah Edwards (ZachEdw 1) .

Notes.

Lycogala uviforme is similar to and phylogenetically related to L. botrydium ( Leontyev et al. 2023 b) , sharing dense ornamentation of the peridium by vesicle aggregates, their fusiform shape, brown pigmentation, and abundant oil content. However, the peridial vesicles of L. botrydium have thin, nearly invisible vesicle walls, while in L. uviforme they are thick and conspicuous. Sporocarps of L. botrydium are irregular in shape and somewhat flattened, while in L. uviforme , they are spherical or slightly ovoid. The vesicle ornamentation is clearly reticulate in L. uviforme and rather spotted in L. botrydium . In addition, the capillitium of L. botrydium is fine-pitted and warty, with ring-shaped islets, while in L. uviforme it is covered with larger pits, giving a reticulate appearance to its surface. From the phylogenetic perspective (Fig. 2 ), L. uviforme and L. botrydium form a monophyletic group that received strong support (UBS = 100, PP = 1). The interspecific genetic distance between these species, measured for SSU sequences, is 0.17. The separation of L. uviforme is supported in 8 of 10 partitions created by ASAP (Suppl. material 7).

Figures

Figure 2. Maximum likelihood tree inferred from the concatenated sequences of SSU and COI, showing the phylogenetic relationship of Lycogala. The members of Reticularia were used to root the tree. Only Maximum likelihood ultrafast bootstrap support (UBS) / Bayesian posterior probabilities (PP) ≥ 70 / 0.7 are shown. The voucher numbers are indicated after the species names. The number of identical genotypes is in parentheses (if present). The ten new species described in this study are indicated in red and bold. The four new species to China are indicated in blue and bold. Other newly obtained sequences are in bold. The scale bar represents the number of substitutions per site.

Figure 16. Morphological characteristics of Lycogala uviforme: A – C sporocarp; D, E peridial vesicles; F the inner surface of the peridium (SEM); G the bulbous free ends of the capillitium; H capillitium; I the bulbous free ends of the capillitium (SEM); J the detail of capillitium ornamentation (SEM); K spore (SEM); L – N spores. Scale bars: 0.5 mm (A – C); 100 μm (D, E); 10 μm (G, H, L – N); 5 μm (F, I, L); 1 μm (K).