Myrmecridium
Myrmecridium Arzanlou, W. Gams & Crous, in Arzanlou, Groenewald, Gams, Braun, Shin & Crous, Stud. Mycol. 58: 84 (2007)
Diaporthomycetidae, Myrmecridiales, Myrmecridiaceae, Myrmecridium
Index Fungorum number: IF 504559; 13 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2020); 13 species with sequence data.
Saprobic on decaying wood submerged in freshwater, leaf litter, on stem or leaves of herbaceous plants, occurring on soil and in house dust. Sexual morph: Ascomata immersed, usually under a dark brown clypeus, solitary or grouped in small clusters, hyaline to pale brown, glabrous, with subglobose to conical venter and papilla ostiolate. Papilla or short necks located at the centre, projecting slightly or opening flush with the wood surface. Ostiole periphysate. Clypeus positioned slightly beneath the wood surface. Peridium leathery, two-layered, with hyaline to pale brown outer layer and subhyaline inner layer consisting of cells of textura angularis to textura prismatica. Paraphyses hyaline, septate, slightly constricted at the septa, cylindrical. Asci unitunicate, cylindrical, with a slender, long pedicel. Ascospores hyaline, ellipsoidal, delicately verruculose, septate. Asexual morph: Colonies flat, mycelium immersed. Conidiophores brown at base and paler towards the apex, arising vertically, clearly distinct from creeping hyphae, unbranched, straight or flexuose, septate, thick-walled. Conidiogenous cells pale brown to hyaline, cylindrical, polyblastic, integrated, terminal. Conidia solitary, subhyaline, obovoidal or fusiform, smooth or finely verrucose, conidial secession schizolytic (Luo et al. 2019, Hyde et al. 2020).
Type species: Myrmecridium schulzeri (Sacc.) Arzanlou, W. Gams & Crous, in Arzanlou, Groenewald, Gams, Braun, Shin & Crous, Stud. Mycol. 58: 84 (2007)
Notes: Myrmecridium accommodates ramichloridium-like taxa with hyaline mycelium and pale brown to hyaline, conidiogenous cells with pimple-like denticles. Myrmecridium montsegurinum is, so far, the only taxon in the genus reported in its sexual morph (Réblová et al. 2016). It occurs on decaying wood of various deciduous trees submerged in freshwater. This taxon also shares a close phylogenetic affinity to M. schulzeri and M. flexuosum, but statistical support for this alliance is not significant (Réblová et al. 2016). Furthermore, because Myrmecridium sorbicola has septate conidia and it phylogenetically groups with species of Neomyrmecridium, it was transferred to the latter genus (Crous et al. 2018).
Species illustrated in this entry:
Myrmecridium aquaticum Z.L. Luo, K.D. Hyde & H.Y. Su
Myrmecridium montsegurinum Réblová & J. Fourn.
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