Fungi Fimicoli Italici - Mycosphere-online journal

Table 58 Records from Italy of coprophilous Poronia on different dung types (n° of dung samples
in damp chamber cultures, in square brackets)°.
cattle
donkey
[55]
[6]
P. erici 1
P. punctata 1
° Records from dung in the natural state, in normal type. Records from dung in damp chambers and frequency (%), in
bold type.
some taxa following the same nomenclatural
order as in section “Results”
Dothideomycetes – Pleosporomycetidae –
Pleosporales – Sporormiaceae
Sporormiella affinis (Sacc., E. Bommer & M.
Rousseau) S.I. Ahmed & Cain, Canadian
Journal Botany 50: 425, 1972. Figs 1–9
Sporormia affinis Sacc., E. Bommer &
M. Rousseau in Bommer & Rousseau, Mem.
Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg. 25(1): 171, 1886.
Preussia affinis (Sacc., E. Bommer &
M. Rousseau) Valldos. & Guarro, Bol. Soc.
Micol. Madrid 14: 82, 1990.
= Sporormia octomera var. macrospora
Feltgen, Piltz-Flora Luxenburg. 1, 2: 223,
1901.
Pseudothecia ostiolate, subglobose, 400–
600 µm diam., membranous, glabrous, blackish,
with a papillate, scarcely differentiated
neck, up to 200 µm diam. Peridium twolayered,
pseudoparenchymatous: 1) endostratum
of pale, thin-walled, polygonal cells, up to
25 µm diam.; 2) exostratum of dark brown,
very thick-walled, polygonal cells, 5–12 × 4–9
µm. Pseudoparaphyses plentiful, cylindricfiliform,
exceeding the asci, 2.5–4 µm diam.,
narrowing at the septa, branched, containing
several hyaline vacuoles, not inflated at their
tips. Asci bitunicate, non-amyloid, 8-spored,
250–270 × 25–33 µm, cylindric-claviform,
rounded at the apex, short-stalked (stalk up to
30 µm long). Ascospores bi- to triseriate above,
uniseriate in the lower part of the ascus, surrounded
by a broad gelatinous sheath, 70–75 ×
14–15 µm, cylindric-claviform, usually slightly
curved, hyaline at first, dark brown at maturity,
smooth, thick-walled, 8-celled, deeply constrictted
at the transverse septa, with cells
easily separating from each other, each with a
diagonal germ slit. End cells subconical, longer
than wide (11–12.2 × 9–10 µm), longer than
the middle cells, the uppermost with a slightly
376
pointed apex, the lowermost with a blunt apex.
Middle cells cylindric, wider than long, the
third from the upper end the widest.
Material examined – Italy, Reggio
Emilia, Ramiseto, Pratizzano, 1200 m a.s.l.,
about ten immersed, gregarious specimens on
hare dung, L. Levorato, 23.5.2008, 217.2–
Ramiseto, CLSM 006.08.
Notes – The family Sporormiaceae is
characterised by ascoloculate, aperiphysate, perithecioid
or cleistothecioid ascomata, fissitunicate
asci with a scarcely developed apical
apparatus, and dark, septate, exceptionally onecelled,
thick-walled ascospores, often with
germ slits and breaking into part-spores at
maturity (Barr 2000). The Sporormiaceae,
which multigene analyses have proved to form
a monophyletic group (Kruys & Wedin 2009,
Schoch et al. 2009, Zhang et al. 2009), encompass
ten saprobic, mostly coprophilous genera
(Kirk et al. 2008), two of which, Preussia
Fuckel and Sporormiella, have so similar features
that the question of their reciprocal independence
is open for several years. Preussia
was conceived (Fuckel 1867) as having “carbonaceous,
non-ostiolate unevenly breaking and
finally fragmenting perithecia, suffused with a
soft flocculose, spurious hyphopodium, clavate,
long-stalked, 8-spored asci, no paraphyses,
elongate-cylindric sporidia, finally fragmenting
into four ovoidal and angular, dark
brown parts”. Preussia funiculata Fuckel, was
recorded from decaying oak wood and described
as the type species.
Ellis & Everhart (1892) established Sporormiella
and assigned to this genus “softcarnose
perithecia, embedded in a flattish,
semi-immersed, subcarnose stroma, asci and
sporidia as in Sporormia” i.e. “elongated, 8spored
asci, 4–20-celled sporidia, with soon
separating, dark colored cells; mostly fimicolous”.
Sporormiella nigropurpurea Ellis &
Everh., a species with ostiolate ascomata and