NOTES ON SOUTH NIGERIAN MYCETOZOA 125 



Nigeria. During the two and a half years of his residence there 

 he has collected forty-three species of Mycetozoa, many of them 

 represented by fine specimens. From his letters one gathers an 

 idea of some of the difticulties with which he has had to contend 

 in finding and preserving these fragile and often inconspicuous 

 growths, such as the vicissitudes of a tropical climate, the ravages 

 of insects and mould, and scanty leisure ; even on trekking ex- 

 peditions through the bush, lasting several days, collecting is not 

 easy when the " carriers " must always be kept in sight among 

 the maze of native paths. Such excellent results could not have 

 been obtained without much patience and care, or without keen 

 powers of observation. 



Although a large number of species of Mycetozoa appear to 

 be widely distributed, one is struck by the absence from Mr. 

 Farquharson's hst of some that are commonest in our temperate 

 regions. The genera Badhamia, Craterium, Didymium, and 

 TricJiia are unrepresented. Of the large genus Ph2jsarum,fiYG 

 out of the ten species that he has found have not been obtained 

 in Britain ; all of them are new records for South Nigeria, and 

 one, Physamm digitatum, is an entirely new species. Another 

 species described here for the first time, Diachcea mdiata, had 

 previously been found in Ceylon ; its distinctive characters are 

 confirmed and strengthened by Mr. Farquharson's gatherings and 

 observations. 



Previous to his visit little attention had been paid to 

 Mycetozoa in Nigeria, and indeed from the whole African conti- 

 nent comparatively few species have been recorded. 



In 1846 a hst of twenty-seven Mycetozoa found iii Algeria 

 was published by Durieu and Montague in 'L'Exploration Scien- 

 tifique de I'Algerie,' and these are the only records I know of 

 from North Africa ; several of the names quoted are of uncertain 

 application ; for example, the description of Didymium vaccinum 

 Dur. & Mont, may refer to D. Trochus Lister, but in the absence 

 of the type this is only conjectural ; Trichia chrysospervia at the 

 time when the above paper was written was the name applied 

 to all the five species of the genus which have reticulated 

 spores. 



About twenty-two species have been recorded from time to 

 time from the Cape Province and Natal. Welwitsch in 1855 

 obtained a few species in Angola! and ; in 1905 Dr. Hubert 

 Winkler made a small but interesting collection in the Cameroon 

 district ; in 1901 Mr. W. E. Freeman collected five species in 

 South Nigeria. 



The accompanying table gives a Hst of the Mycetozoa recorded 

 from North, South, East and West Africa, and their general dis- 

 tribution in other parts of the world as far as our limited informa- 

 tion extends. The letter F denotes that Mr. Farquharson was 

 the first to record the species in West Africa ; all other records 

 are marked by a cross. The table is followed by a descriptive list 

 of Mr. Farquharson's gatherings. 



