89 



NEW OR BARE SPECIES OF MYCETOZOA. 



By G. Lister, F.L.S. 



(Plate 558.) 



During the last few years several entirely new species of 

 Mycetozoa have been discovered ; and some forms, previously re- 

 garded as varieties only, have been found to retain their characters so 

 well that it is more convenient to regard them as distinct species. 

 The following notes refer to these and also to certain other species 

 rarely met with hitherto : — 



Badhamia yiridescens Meylan, in Bull. Soc. Vaud. Sc. Nat., 

 1921. Plasmodium ? Sporangia scattered or loosely clustered, 

 stalked, globose, 0"5 to 0"8 mm. diam., pale sulphur-yellow or grey 

 with a yellow base ; sporangium- wall rugulose with dense deposits 

 of lime-granules. Stalk OT to 0*3 mm. high, furrowed, orange, or 

 yellow above, orange-brown below, translucent when mounted, ex- 

 panded at the base. Capillitium a coarse network of tubes charged 

 with yellow or colourless lime-granules, sometimes with a few connect- 

 ing hyaline threads. Spores lilac, nearly smooth, 8 to 10 fx diam. 

 Habitat on dead wood. 



This species appears to have been found first by Miss A. Hibbert- 

 Ware in the Altyre Woods, Elginshire, in Sept. 1912, on lichen on a 

 dead oak bough. In November, 1913, M. Ch. Meylan collected it 

 at Cote aux Fees in the Jura mountains, at an altitude of 1100 metres ; 

 he again met with it near there in Sept. 1920. At one time we 

 regarded it as a form of Craterium aureum Post., to which it bears 

 considerable resemblance ; the Padhamia-like capillitium and the 

 pale spores appear, however, to be constant distinguishing characters. 

 The sporangia show a tendency to open by petal-like lobes. 



Physarum atrum Schwein. The first British gathering of this 

 inconspicuous species was made last September by the Bev. W. Cran, 

 who found it on decaying shoots of Scots pine, at Durris, Aberdeenshire. 

 The small purplish-grey sporangia are nearly destitute of calcareous 

 deposits, and are less heaped together than is usual in this species. 

 P. atrum is not unfrequent in fir woods in New England. In Europe 

 it has been found several times in mixed woods near Berlin by 

 Dr. Jahn ; in Moldavia Dr. Marcel Brandza Avrites that it is abundant 

 in mountain pine- woods, whence he has sent us fine examples. 



Physarum digit atum G. Lister & Farquharson. Besides the 

 type obtained by the late Mr. C. 0. Farquharson in South Nigeria, 

 this species has been found in the Knysna Forest, Cape Province, 

 South Africa, by Miss A. V. Duthie. Part of a third gathering, 

 collected at Preston, Ohio, by the late A. P. Morgan in 1895, was 

 kindly sent me by Prof. Macbride. I had regarded it as a form of 

 P. virescens Ditm., but the heaped clusters of small clay-coloured 

 sporangia and the small spores marked with scattered clusters of 

 warts agree in all respects with P. digitatam. 



Physarum gyrosum Post. The colour of the plasmodium of 

 this species has been described as either white, creamy-white, yellow, 

 Journal of Botany. — Vol. 59. [April, 1921.] h 



