Fungi fimicola Aegyptiaci: I. Recent investigations and conservation in arid South Sinai

Abstract

Sixty one species of coprophilous fungi distributed in 39 genera were recorded from dung of goat, feral donkey and one-humped camel collected from the arid desert areas of the Saint Katherine Protectorate, South Sinai, Egypt. The samples were collected on a monthly basis from October 2012 to March 2013, dried, taken to the laboratory and incubated in moist chambers for 6 to 20 weeks. Morphological features of sporulating ascomycetes were used to characterize and identify the species. Higher number of taxa was observed in feral donkey dung, followed by camel and goat dung. On the generic level, Chaetomium came first, accommodating the highest number of species (7), followed by Fusarium, Pilobolus and Thielavia. Coprinopsis stercorea is apparently a new record for Egypt. Collections are described and the occurrence and distribution of species is discussed, supplemented with a dichotomous key to all reported taxa.