Licea pygmaea Ing, Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc.
Creators: name: Basanta, Diana Wrigley De
name: Mier, Carlos De
name: Lado, Carlos
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Protozoa
Mycetozoa
Dictyosteliomycetes
Dictyosteliales
Raperosteliaceae
Licea
Licea pygmaea

description: 20. Licea pygmaea (Meyl.) Ing, Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc. 78(3): 443 (1982) Figs. 17A–L
≡ Licea pusilla var. pygmaea Meyl., Bull. Soc. Vaud. Sci. Nat. 58: 89 (1933)
Sporophores sporocarpic, scattered to gregarious, sessile. Sporocarps subglobose to pulvinate, angular, 0.05–0.1 mm diam., brown. Peridium double, outer layer horny, inner layer membranous; dehiscence into platelets along shiny ridges, platelet margins with prominent outgrowths. Spores free, dark olive to dull dark brown in mass, greenish yellow by TL, globose, 12–13 µm diam., minutely evenly warted. By SEM the inner peridium inner surface is warted with different sized warts and some bare patches (Figs. 17 I – J); the platelet margins have different sized outgrowths mostly in a single row but sometimes overlapping, fused and sausage-shaped (Figs. 17 I – J); the epispore is covered with flattened bacula evenly dispersed, sometimes two or more fused (Figs. 17 K – L).
Material examined: Lectotypus. SWITZERLAND. Vaud, nr. Ste Croix, La Gittaz, 1250 m, OCT 1930. Myxo 055 (LAU)!. (Designated by Kowlaski, Mycologia 67: 448-494. 1975).
Habitat: on bark of living and dead trees, trunks, stumps and debris of angiosperms and gymnosperms.
Distribution: Norway, Sweden, Lithuania, Russian Federation, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, India, Vietnam, Japan, Congo Democratic Republic, USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Australia, New Zealand.
Icon.: Nannenga-Bremekamp (1965: 140, Figs. 7 B – C, as L. pusilla var. pygmaea; 1975: 66, as L. pusilla var. pygmaea; 1991: 45, as L. pusilla var. pygmaea), Gilert (1996: 517, Figs. 1–2, 5–6; 518, Figs. 7–8, 11–12; 520, Figs. 11–12, 14, all the images as L. pusilla), Lado & Pando (1997: 130, Figs. 37a–b), Yamamoto (2002a: 3. Figs. 1 A – D; 2004: 23, Figs. 3 A – C; 2006: 35, Figs. 15 A – D; 2021: 148, Figs. A – D), Poulain et al. (2011: 70), Ronikier et al. (2017: 253, Figs. 4 G – K), López-Villalba & Moreno (2020: 149, Figs. 3a–d), Johannesen & Vetlesen (2020: 79, Figs 40 A), Bortnikov et al. (2022: 39, Figs. 15a–k).
Notes. This species was published by Meylan (1933), as a variety of L. pusilla Schrad. However based on the number of differences between these taxa, such as spore size, spore ornamentation and the peridium, Ing (1982) raised the variety to specific rank (see above). The minute size of sporocarps and the fact that it has been often included as a variety in the species L. pusilla makes the distribution of L. pygmaea unclear. As stated above, we agree with Ing (1982) and consider L. pusilla and L. pygmaea to be separate species based on the differences found by SEM in the ornamentation of the peridium and platelet edges, as well as spore colour and size.
description: Published as part of Basanta, Diana Wrigley De, Mier, Carlos De & Lado, Carlos, 2023, A taxonomic revision of the species of Licea subg. Licea (Myxomycetes), pp. 95-128 in Phytotaxa 629 (2) on page 118, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.629.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/10276047