FUNGI 



IS 



anamorph, for example, is well documented but was not 

 isolated in the studies. Ascothcha guamensis Ames previ- 

 ously was isolated from Guam, New Guinea, India, and 

 more recently, from soil at Enewetak. Microascus cinereus 

 (Emele-Weil and Gaudin) Gurzi, the teleomorph, and its 

 associated anamorph were among the most frequently iso- 

 lated fungi in the beach study. These were rarely isolated 

 from carbonate beaches in Hawaii. Giimnoascus reesii is 

 typical of the saline habitats all through the Pacific basin 

 (Baker and Meeker, 1972). 



DEUTEROMYCOTINA 



At Enewetak Atoll, the majority of the Deutero- 

 mycotina genera isolated from beaches was comprised of 

 members of the order Moniliales (94 taxa), with the 

 majority of species evenly divided between the families 

 Dematiaceae and Moniliaceae, Acremonium bacillisporum 

 (Onions and Barron) W. Gams was a prominent member of 

 the carbonate sand community at both Enewetak and 

 Kahala Beach, Oahu, Hawaii (Dunn, 1973). The aspergilli 

 were common and the penicillia were rare in beaches at 

 both localities (Dunn, 1973). These patterns coincide with 

 other data indicating that the aspergilli are more common 

 in the subtropics, and the penicillia are more common in 

 temperate climates. Graphium putredinis (Corda) Hughes 

 was found commonly in the anaerobic zone in deef>er sedi- 

 ments off Enewetak Atoll. Fusarium solani (Mart.) Sacc. 

 was common in beaches at Enewetak but mostly was 

 found near the land zone. The moniliaceous genus 

 Dreschlera is represented on Enewetak Atoll by four 

 species (Table 1). All are known from the tropics and 

 southernmost Africa. Two of the species of 

 Cladospohum, C. dadosporioides. and C. sphaerosper- 

 rnum are found in tropical and subtropical climates 

 in saline habitats. A third species, C. herbarum. was 

 not found frequently at Enewetak and is cosmopolitan in 

 distribution. 



BASIDIOMYCOTINA 



The most common isolate from air at Enewetak Atoll is 

 a basidiomycete identifiable by large clamp connections on 

 the hyphae (Dunn, 1973). It did not sporulate in culture. 

 Other basidiomycetes in the Marshall Islands, mostly asso- 

 ciated with decaying wood, were collected by Rogers 

 (1947) and Taylor (1950). They did not collect fungi on 

 Enewetak Atoll, and fungi from decaying wood have not 

 been studied on Enewetak. 



CONCLUSION 



The mycological data from Enewetak Atoll reflect two 

 principles of fungal biogeography: similar regions have 

 similar biotas, and distributional data are often due to bias 

 collection activity of mycologists (Baker and Meeker, 

 1972). For example, the genus Mi/rothecium was initially 

 reported in the Pacific from New Zealand. This genus was 



then reported from Moorea, Society Island (Peterson, 

 1960). 



As data from other Pacific islands became available, 

 the distribution was enlarged to include Tonga, Hawaii, 

 New Caledonia (Baker and Meeker, 1972), and Enewetak 

 (Baker and Meeker, 1972; Dunn, 1973). A similar expan- 

 sion through the tropical Pacific may be expected for most 

 of the species reported here. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



The authors thank G. E. Baker for help during the 

 beach studies and acknowledge the financial support of the 

 U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Grant AT-(29-2)-229 

 and the use of its Mid-Pacific Research Laboratory. 



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