Sporodiniella

SPORODINIELLA Boedijn, 1959 (Sydowia 12:336) (Evans and Samson, 1977—monograph).

Sporangiophores arising directly from the substrate, forming an umbel and each branch forms a secondary umbel that branches dichotomously, one branch terminating in a sporangium and other other in sterile spine. Sporangia more or less globose, columellate, multispored, wall deliquescent. Sporangiospores globose to ovoid, wall spinose. Zygospores with an ornamented, dark zygosporangial wall, suspensors opposed; homothallic.

Type species: S. umbellata

Species of Sporodiniella:
S. umbellata Boedijn, 1959 (Sydowia 12:336) emend. Evans and Samson, 1977 (Can. J. Bot. 55:2981).

This fungus is a facultative parasite on insect larvae in the tropics (Evans and Samson, 1977; Chien and Huang, 1997). Zygospores normally are not produced in culture but they are known in infected insect larvae collected in the field (Evans and Samson, 1977). Sporodiniella umbellata may be an important pathogen of membracids, and other insects, in cocao farms in Ecuador (Evans and Samson, 1977).

Sporodiniella umbellata was invalid when described (Boedijn, 1958) because the type was not indicated after 1 January 1958 as required in Art. 37.1 of the ICBN (Greuter et al., 2000). Neotypes have been designated for three of Boedijn’s (1958) monotypic genera, Phascolomyces articulosis, Sporodiniella umbellata, and Utharomyces epallocaulus (Benny and Benjamin, 1976; Evans and Samson, 1977; Kirk and Benny, 1980) that are now in culture. Rhizopodopsis javanicus (Boedijn, 1958) is not known to be in culture and a neotype has not been designated.

Sporodiniella umbellata and Syzygites megalocarpus both form sporangiospores with spinose walls (Ekpo and Young, 1979; Gbaja and Young, 1985), an unusual type of spore ornamentation in the Mucorales.

Bibliography

Benny, G.L., and R.K. Benjamin. 1976. Observations on Thamnidiaceae (Mucorales). II. Chaetocladium, Cokeromyces, Mycotypha, and Phascolomyces. Aliso 8:391-424.

Boedijn, K. B. 1958 [1959]. Notes on the Mucorales of Indonesia. Sydowia 12:321-362.

Chien, C.-Y, and B.-C. Huang. 1997. First record of the occurance of Sporodiniella umbellata (Mucorales) in Taiwan. Mycoscience 38:343-346.

Ekpo, E.J.A., and T.W.K. Young. 1979. Fine structure of the dormant and germinating sporangiospore of Syzygites megalocarpus (Mucorales) with notes on Sporodiniella umbellata. Microbios Letters 10:63-68.

Evans, H. C., and R. A. Samson. 1977. Sporodiniella umbellata, an entomogenous fungus of the Mucorales from cocoa farms in Ecuador. Canad. J. Bot. 55:2981-2984.

Gbaja, I.S., and T.W.K. Young. 1985. Ultrastructure of the anamorph of Sporodiniella umbellata (Mucorales). Microbios 42:263-272.

Greuter, W., J. McNeill, F.M. Barrie, H.M. Burdet, V. Demoulin, T.S. Filgueiras, D.H. Nicolson, P.C. Silva, J.E. Skog, P. Trehane, N.J. Turland, and D.H. Hawksworth (Eds.). 2000. International code of botanical nomenclature ( St. Louis code ). Reg. veget. 138:1-474.

Kirk, P.M., and G. L. Benny. 1980. The genus Utharomyces Boedijn (Pilobolaceae: Zygomycetes). Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc. 75:123-131.

Updated Mar 12, 2005