Barbeyella minutissima

A) fruiting bodies, b ) - e ) views of the open peridium

Barbeyella minutissima is a Schleimpilzart from the order of Echinosteliida and the only species of the genus Barbeyella. Its distribution area is limited to the northern hemisphere, they often settled on mosses. The type is one of the smallest representatives of Myxogastrien and is considered rare.

Features

The Protoplasmodium is colorless - transparent, the fruiting bodies arise from hemispherical masses of protoplasm, which measure the diameter approximately 1.5 times the mature sporangia. With increasing maturity appear dark spots and later the center of the protoplasm becomes dark. The more translucent milk white protoplasm then rises along the stem to the top where first scalp and peridium and finally the spores are formed. At room temperature, this process took about one day.

The long-stalked, dark brown or black violet, hardly shining sporangia of Barbeyella are spherical, they measure 0.15 to 0.2 millimeters in diameter and are 0.3 to 0.7 mm long, including the stem. Mostly they are scattered, but often also in loose, large colonies. The Hypothallus has a diameter of 0.7 millimeters and can not be seen on moss, on wood he is reddish brown. The brown-black stem is to thicken against the base to 0.1 millimeters and tapers towards the top down to 5 microns, it is filled with protoplasmatischem scrap material. The tip of the stem springing columella runs at its upper end to about halfway up the fructification in seven to thirteen simple or rarely forked, 1-4 microns in diameter measured, dark brown Capillitiumsfäden from. These are firm, usually solitary, rarely in pairs intertwine with the lobed, oblong round sections of the peridium, in the tears to the sporangium spore maturity of up against the ground. Through these intergrowth the Peridiallappen be prevented from canceling and distribute the spores so for a long time, similar to a pore capsule. The peridium are above downward occupied with cytoplasmic granulations, against the reason for of such, however, almost free. Depending on the size of the cytoplasmic granulations the peridium appears papillose or smooth.

The spores are dark brown in mass, brown in transmitted light. They are sculpted warty, rarely almost smooth and have a diameter of 7-9 micrometers.

Dissemination

Barbeyella minutissima is considered rare. Their distribution follows the montane spruce-fir forests in the northern hemisphere. It is limited to altitudes 500-2500 m, occasionally down to sea level to 3500 meters or from low to high. So far, it has been found in Europe (Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Romania), in the western and eastern North America (Washington, Oregon, California, Mexico and North and South Carolina and Virginia), in the Indian Himalayas and in Japan.

Ecology

The type located exclusively in habitats from mild to severe rotting and loose bark of dead wood in coniferous forests cool, damp environments. The wood is 40 to 100 % with liverworts, especially of the genera Nowellia or Cephalozia overgrown. In particular Nowellia Curvifolia considered an indicator of the kind alternative to mosses it is also associated with unicellular algae, it is believed that the Protoplasmodium phagocytosed either the algae or bacteria living on them. In addition there are also often other types of Myxogastria together with Barbeyella, especially tigrinum Lepidoderma, Lamproderma columbinum and Colloderma oculatum.

Systematics and history of research

The species was first described in 1914 by Charles Meylan means of a copy from the Swiss Jura. The genus name honors the Swiss botanist William Barbey ( 1842-1914 ). Together with the genus Clastoderma it forms the family of Clastodermidae.

Evidence

Footnotes directly after a statement prove the single statement, footnotes directly after a punctuation mark the entire preceding sentence. Footnotes behind a vacancy refer to the entire preceding paragraph.

• Myxogastrien
• Myxogastria