Mosses of the Mediterranean, an annotated checklist - Optima-bot.org

220 R.M. Ros, V. Mazimpaka et al.[22] Entosthodon curviapiculatus Müll. Hal. (= Funaria curviapiculata (Müll. Hal.) Broth.)was described from Egypt but its identity has not been revised since.[23] Funaria serrata Brid. was cited in old literature from France as a synonym ofEntosthodon convexus (Boulay, 1884). At present F. serrata is an accepted species inthe Flora of North America (McIntosch, 2007) although there is molecular evidencethat it should be included in the genus Entosthodon as E. serratus (Brid.) Fife (Liuet al., 2012). In any case it should be excluded from the Mediterranean area.[24] Entosthodon angustifolius Jur. & Milde was described from Libya and later reportedfrom several south-western Asian countries (Jordan and Turkey) and also in centralAsia, but its identity remains unknown.[25] Brugués & Sérgio (2010) conducted a taxonomic revision of the types of theMacaronesian Entosthodon krausei Besch. and Funaria fritzei Geh., and the AlgerianEntosthodon deserticola (Trab.) Jelenc and E. saharae (Trab.) Jelenc, and concludedthat all of them are synonymous with E. commutatus.[26] Entosthodon handelii was described from Mesopotamia and Kurdistan as Funariahandelii Schiffn. (the localities mentioned in the protologue are now in Turkey andIraq), and it has been recorded recently in the Caucasus by Fedosov et al. (2010).[27] Ros & Cano (2008) when studying the type of the Algerian Physcomitrium longicolleTrab. observed that this was an older synonym of E. hungaricus and proposed thecombination Entosthodon longicollis (Trab.) Ros & M.J. Cano. They were not awarethat this was an illegitimate name because Mitten had already published the nameE. longicollis in 1869 for a different species. Therefore the later valid name,E. hungaricus, is used here.[28] Entosthodon kroonkurk has recently been described by Dirkse & Brugués (2010) fromspecimens from the Canary Islands and mainland Spain.[29] Several names at present included in the Funariaceae have been used for mossescollected around the Nile River with the epithet nilotica/niloticum/niloticus. The first ofthese names was Gymnostomum niloticum Delile for plants in which “Les quatre ou cinqfeuilles supérieures sont les plus longues, et rapprochées en rosette au-dessous de l’urne, quiest presque sessile, et qu’elles dépassent considérablement. L’urne est sphérique-deprimée;elle se réduit à un godet plat” (Delile, 1813). The second name was Entosthodon niloticusSchimp. ex Müll. Hal. for plants with “theca in pedunculo recto elongato flavo-rubenteerecta, e collo longiusculo pyriformis” Müller (1855). Although the sporophytes of bothspecies are clearly different, Müller (op. cit.) included Delile’s Gymnostomum niloticumas a synonym of his species, causing great confusion among later authors. Thismisinterpretation was detected by Müller (1858) who stated when combining G. niloticusin the genus Physcomitrium (Müller, 1858): “Synonymon in Bot. Zeit. 1855, p. 747 adEntosth. Niloticum Schimp. revocatum deleatur”. This confusion was probably due to thefact that the specimen studied by Schimper (1855) was also collected by Delile in Egyptin 1802 (Exemplar BM000674743, Ros, pers. comm.). The name proposed by Delile waslater combined in other genera as Microstegium niloticum (Delile) Lindb. in 1865,Aphanorrhegma niloticum (Delile) Lindb. in 1867 and Micropoma niloticum (Delile)Lindb. in Broth. in 1903. Fife (1982) concluded that the correct taxonomic placement ofall these names should be in Physcomitrium, and that Micropoma is a superfluous namefor Physcomitrium subgen. Cryptopyxis (Müll. Hal.) Broth. On the other hand the nameFunaria nilotica (Schimp. ex Müll. Hal.) Broth. was a combination made by Brotherus forEntosthodon niloticus. In conclusion two different taxa of Funariaceae have beendescribed from the Nile area, and they correspond to the accepted names Entosthodonniloticus and Physcomitrium niloticum. The first of these is endemic to Egypt, while thesecond has a wider distribution including Egypt, Subsaharan Africa (O’Shea, 2006) andsouth-western Asia (Frey & Kürschner 1991; Kürschner, 2000a).[30] Entosthodon planoconvexus was reported from Egypt by Shabbara (1999), but this isthe only Mediterranean report of this North American species, which is not known fromany other adjacent territory in Europe and Africa. This report requires verification.