Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2005, Page 78

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COPROPHILOUS FUNGI FROM THE FAROE ISLANDS
Islands (2), and from rabbit from Tenerife,
Spain (not boreal, but at an elevation of 1400
m on the northern slopes of Mt Teide), and
B. bombardioides from moose (Alces alces)
from Colorado, USA, and the Yukon, Cana-
da. 46(H), 48(H)/04.
Coniochaeta hansenii (Oudem.) Cain
Va. A Coniochaeta with polyspored asci, but
with very small discoid spores, 6.5-8.5 x 5-
7 x 4-5 pm (cf. C. polymegasperma below),
which is also most frequently recorded from
hare and rabbit dung. 48(H)/04.
Coniochaeta leucoplaca (Sacc.) Cain
Ku, Vi. 43, 45(H)/04, and
Coniochaeta vagans (Carestia & de Not.) N.
Lundq.
Bo, St, Va, Vi. 31, 32(H), 42, 43, 46, 48-
50/04.
There is some uncertainty about the iden-
tification and nomenclature of some of the
Faroese material of Coniochaeta. Doveri
(2004) discusses in detail the difficulties he
and others have had in identifying 8-spored
Coniochaeta species with spores of varying
morphology from distinctly discoid to almost
ellipsoid, with the largest dimension in the
range 9-16 pm. Doveri (2004), citing in de-
tail correspondence from Lundqvist, accepts
that the correct name for the coprophilous
fungus with discoid or broadly ellipsoidal
spores in face view, in the range 12-16 x 8-
16 pm, and 6-9 pm across the smallest axis,
is C. vagans (syn. C. discospora (Auersw.
ex Niessl)). The latter name has been con-
sidered by some to be a synonym of C. lig-
niaría (Grev.) Massee, a lignicolous species,
the difference in substrate being considered
to be unimportant in the light of the morpho-
logical similarity of C. discospora (= C. va-
gans) and C. ligniaria, with the latter nanie
having priority. Lundqvist (in Doveri, 2004),
however, considers that there are sufficient
characters, particularly in the structure of the
peridium, to distinguish the two. Quite a feW
of the Faroese specimens (as listed above)
were identified as C. vagans, although the
spores were mostly at the lower end of the
accepted range, and some approaching the
upper end of the range for C. leucoplaca,
which has smaller discoid spores, 7-9.5 x 6-8
x 4-6 pm. Indeed, in some cases the spore
sizes overlapped the ranges given for the two
species. The spores of the various samples of
these collections were in the range 9.5-14.5 X
7-11.5 x 4.5-7.5 pm. Two other collections,
listed above under C. leucoplaca, had spores
which were much more ellipsoid, 9-11 x 5-8
x 4-6.5 (im.
Coniochaeta polymegasperma M. J. Rich'
ardson (Figs 8-10)
St, Vi. This species has been known in Scot-
land since the 1960s (Richardson, 1998)-
From 1990-2004 there were 16 records of
this fungus, all from Scotland, and all oti
droppings of the blue or mountain hare
(Lepus timidus), out of a total of 41 blue hare
samples collected in Scotland. In contrast,
it has not been found on samples of blue
hare collected in England (1) or Ireland (2),
or on samples of other species of hare frorn
Scotland (3), England (6), France (19), USA
(8), Chile (1) or the Falkland Islands (5)-
It was also not recorded from eight samples
from Finland collected in August 2004, some