Abstract
Situated within the Atlantic Forest domain, the Centro de Endemismo Pernambuco (Pernambuco Center of Endemism) - CEPE is regarded as a priority for biodiversity conservation worldwide. Covering an area of approximately 56,000 km2, it encompasses part of the states of Alagoas, Pernambuco, Paraiba and Rio Grande do Norte in northeastern Brazil. Here we present an identification key to 73 species of Myxomycetes that compose the known corticolous myxobiota of the Dense Ombrofilous Lowland Forest, Semideciduous Lowland Forest, Restinga Forest and Mangrove environments of CEPE. Specimens included here were found developed in natural conditions in the field or obtained through moist chamber culture. Among the species found, Arcyria cinerea, Clastoderma debaryanum, Cribraria confusa, C. violacea and Echinostelium minutum were the most common; and Comatricha longipila, Licea pedicellata, Paradiachaeopsis longipes, Perichaena calongei and Stemonaria fuscoides were the most rare. Our data indicates that the species richness of corticolous myxomycetes in rainforests is lower than that of temperate forests. These same data also suggest that taxonomic diversity (mean number of species per genus) is similar to, or higher than, that found in temperate regions of the world.
Highlights
Situated within the Atlantic Forest domain, the Centro de Endemismo Pernambuco (Pernambuco Center of Endemism) - CEPE is regarded as a priority for biodiversity conservation worldwide
Myxomycetes (Amoebozoa) are unicellular phagotrophic eukaryotes that prey on fungus and bacteria, and occur in terrestrial environments as haploid, uninucleated myxamoebae and swarm cells or as diploid multinucleated plasmodium that produce fungus-like fruiting bodies (Gray & Alexopoulos 1968)
Aiming to expand up on the existing knowledge of the ecosystem distribution of myxomycetes in the Neotropics, this paper presents 73 corticolous species found in different forest environments of the CEPE and provides a key for their identification, based on records made between the years of 1970 and 2016
Summary
Myxomycetes (Amoebozoa) are unicellular phagotrophic eukaryotes that prey on fungus and bacteria, and occur in terrestrial environments as haploid, uninucleated myxamoebae and swarm cells or as diploid multinucleated plasmodium that produce fungus-like fruiting bodies (Gray & Alexopoulos 1968). Studies focusing on the corticolous myxobiota of Brazil were initiated by Cavalcanti (1974), who recorded 20 species on the bark of 300 trees of the Cerrado biome, of which 13 taxa were obtained through moist-chamber culture.
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