Two New Species of Mortierella from India

Abstract

Mortierella indica Mehrotra was the first report of a fully described species of the genus in India (Mehrotra, 1960). A number of species of Mortierella have been isolated. Two of the new ones having certain features in common are described here. Both species have a subsporangial swelling; in one this occurs just below the sporangium, in the other, slightly below it. The branches from the sporangiophores almost exclusively have been found to arise from this vesicular swelling in both species. This feature never has been reported in either the genus Mortierella or in any other genus of the Mucorales. Recently Ribaldi (1952) created the genus Gongronella in the family Mortierellaceae. The main basis for this genus was the presence of a subsporangial vesicle. Soon after, Peyronel and Dal Vesco (1955) and later Picci (1955) transferred Absidia butleri Lendner to the genus Gongronella mainly on the basis of the presence of a well-marked subsporangial vesicle and pointed out that the type species, Gongronella urceolifera Ribaldi, is very similar to Gongronella butleri. Smith (1961) transferred Mucor vesiculosus Smith to Gongronella butleri. In the list of synonyms of Gongronella butleri, Smith included Gongronella urceolifera as well. The principal characters on which A. butleri was transferred to the genus Gongronella were the subsporangial swelling and the absence of appendages surrounding the zygospores, although this latter condition also exists in at least one known species, A. blakesleeanus Lendner (1923). From a practical standpoint, the genera of Mucorales are based on asexual characteristics rather than sexual ones.