Lycogala projectum W. L. Song, Yang Gao & Shuang L. Chen, 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 projectum W. L. Song, Yang Gao & Shuang L. Chen sp. nov.

Fig. 13

GenBank accession numbers.

PQ 685914 (SSU) and PQ 728376 (COI).

Etymology.

Projectum (Latin) projected, jutting out, referring to the vesicles protrude outward from outer surface of the peridium, and forming distinct large spines.

Diagnosis.

Differs L. maculatum by smaller peridial vesicles, thinner capillitium, and smaller spores.

Description.

Sporocarps scattered, spherical, short horizontally oval, or somewhat irregular, 2.3–5.3 mm in diameter. Peridium thick, relatively hard, dried rose or darker, covered by vesicles, which are denser in the upper part. The inner surface of the peridium ornamented with warts, spins, and innumerous parallel lines. Vesicles protrude outward from the surface of the peridium, forming distinct large spines, black under RL, deep warm brown or lighter under TL, solitary, free or occasionally connecting to each other, irregular rounded, (49 –) 66–117 (– 140) μm in diameter. Crystals and oil droplets absent. Capillitium tubular, near hyaline under TL, (2.6 –) 3.0–4.3 (– 5.4) μm in diameter, with prominent, regularly situated, smooth or warty bracelet-like thickening, less obvious near connection between the capillitium and the peridium or at the free end. Free ends of tubules bulbous, reaching 7.4 μm in diameter. Spore mass in old collections yellow with ochraceous undertones or darker, hyaline under TL, (5.0 –) 5.8–6.4 (– 6.7) μm in diameter, reticulate, with 4–6 meshes across diameter, unornamented area occupies 1 / 4–1 / 2 of the spore surface. Plasmodium unknown.

Distribution.

Currently known only from China.

Habitat.

On rotten wood.

Holotype.

CHINA • Anhui Province: Tiantangzhai National Forest Park , on rotten wood, 31.1584°N, 115.7803°E, 26 Jul 2016, collected by Gao-Wei Wang and Yang Gao ( HFNNU 11248 ).

Additional specimens examined.

CHINA • Jiangxi Province: Jinggang Mountain National Nature Reserve , 26.6727°N, 114.0616°E, on rotten wood, 8 Jul 2020, collected by Yang Gao ( HFNNU 11247 ) . • Anhui Province: Tiantangzhai National Forest Park , 31.1532°N, 115.7838°E, on rotten wood, 26 Jul 2016, collected by Gao-Wei Wang and Yang Gao ( HFNNU 11249 ) .

Notes.

This species is similar to and closely related to L. maculatum ( Leontyev et al. 2023 b) . Both taxa share solitary dark-brown vesicles and prominent bracelet-like thickening on the capillitium tubules. However, the peridial vesicles in L. projectum are somewhat smaller (50–140 μm vs. 100–230 μm), capillitium is thinner (2–5 μm vs. 5–20 μm), spores are smaller (( 5.0 –) 5.8–6.4 (– 6.7) μm vs. (6 –) 6.5–8.5 (– 9.5) μm). In addition, the ornamentation of the inner surface of the peridium in L. projectum seems to be unique: it is densely covered by warts, spines, and parallel lines. From a phylogenetic perspective (Fig. 2 ), L. projectum and L. maculatum form a monophyletic clade with strong statistical support (UBS = 100, PP = 1). The interspecific genetic distance between these two species, measured for SSU sequences, is 0.15. The separation of L. projectum 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 13. Morphological characteristics of Lycogala projectum: A – C sporocarp; D the edge of sporocarp highlights the large spines formed by the peridial vesicles; E the outer surface of the peridium; F peridial vesicles; G, H the inner surface of the peridium (SEM); I, J the detail of capillitium ornamentation (SEM); K capillitium; L the bulbous free ends of the capillitium; M the branch of the capillitium (SEM); N – P spores; Q spores (SEM). Scale bars: 1 mm (A – E); 100 μm (F); 10 μm (G, H, K – P); 5 μm (I, J, Q).