Myxomycetes associated with Australian vertebrate dung

Abstract

Little is known about species of myxomycetes associated with vertebrate dung in Australia. In the present study, dung samples of 15 species of mammals (eight marsupials, three native rodents and four domestic or feral eutherians) and a large flightless bird (the southern cassowary, Casuarius casuarius) were collected and processed in 84 moist chamber cultures. Fifty-two percent of these cultures yielded evidence (fruiting bodies and/or plasmodia) of myxomycetes. Eleven species belonging to seven genera were recorded. Licea tenera was the most common species in the study (recorded from 12 moist chamber cultures) and is also a new record for the continent. Perichaena depressa, Didymium difforme and Cribraria violacea were the only other species appearing in at least three cultures. Samples of dung collected from small mammals did not yield any myxomycetes.