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Frontonia leucas

Overview

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Interesting Facts

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Description

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Physical Description

Species Frontonia leucas

Plasmodium yellow or yellow-green. Aethalia pulvinate , irregular, up to c. 1-5 cm wide, seated on a pallid or dull orange hypothallus. Cortex very thin, dingy white, grey, ochraceous or greenish, bearing scattered deposits of lime. Internal walls poorly developed, forming a pseudocapillitium. Capillitium of pale , ochraceous or dull orange, fusiform or branching lime nodes, connected by rather short, hyaline tubules , often sparse, elastic when abundant. Spores yellow-brown, irregularly and rather sparsely warted, (10-)11-13 µm diam.

Aethalia solitary, up to 5 cm wide and 2.5 cm high, cinnamon to red-brown, rarely yellow-brown. Cortex smooth, soft and soon crumbling, c. 50-100 µm thick. Pseudocapillitium rigid , branched from the base upwards, white from the presence of lime. Capillitium hyaline, 1 µm diam., lime-knots greenish-yellow, fusiform, up to 100 µm long. Spore-mass dark brown to black. Spores usually (6-)7-8 µm diam., verruculose , violet-brown and darker than those of F. septica and its varieties.

Plasmodium unknown. Aethalia irregular, pulvinate, c. 4 cm across and 2 cm thick,wall pale yellow or cream-coloured, sometimes reddish or pale grey, c. 2 mm thick, compact and sturdy, spongy , rather smooth on the outside, breaking open at the top, the remainder rather persistent . Hypothallus membranous, perforated, white or colourless. Peridia inside the aethalium impregnated with white or pale lime, usually at least partly fragmented with spaces between the component tubular sporothecae. Capillitium usually sparse, connected to the peridium of the tube-like component plasmodiocarps at both ends, with few, small, fusiform lime-nodes. Spore-mass dark brown. Spores pale lilac-brown, spherical , 7-9 µm diam., verruculose with a paler area. Rare.

Plasmodium white. Aethalia in groups, usually pulvinate, rather irregular, 0.5-3(-6) cm across, (0.1-) 0.4-1.0 cm thick, dirty white, yellowish-grey, pinkish-grey or brownish. Cortex thin, brittle and soon crumbling away, sometimes absent. Hypothallus white, consisting of several perforated, membranous layers. Peridia of the tubular plasmodiocarps composing the aethalium, usually fragmented, impregnated with white or ochraceous lime, often with persistent tube-like fragments inside, with small spaces between the tubes which are like those of Fuligo septica. Capillitium colourless, badhamioid, or with rounded nodes, white or pale ochraceous, netted . Spore-mass dull dark brown. Spores pale yellowish brown or lilac-grey, verruculose, (9-)10-12(-13) µm diam. On dead wood , dead leaves or living herbs.

Plasmodium translucent white. Aethalia often in small groups, slightly oblate , low pulvinate or irregular, 0.5-6.0 cm across and up to 0.5 cm thick, pale grey or white, cortex brittle and crumbling irregularly, smooth or rough, rarely absent. Hypothallus membranous, often consisting of several perforated layers, encrusted with white lime, often protruding outside the aethalium. Peridia of the tubular plasmodiocarps that form the aethalium, fragmented and impregnated with white lime; component tubules, as far as recognisable, confluent (without spaces between). Capillitium tubules colourless, connected at each end to peridium, branched or unbranched and sometimes forming a net , with a variable number of large or small fusiform or irregular, lime nodes containing white lime, the nodes sometimes merged into a pseudocolumella in the middle of the tubes. Spore-mass black. Spores rather dark purple-brown, mostly oval , (10-)13-14(-15) µm diam., verruculose (rarely spinulose ), these often united by narrow ridges into a broken reticulum .

Plasmodium colourless to chrome yellow. Plasmodiocarps sessile or pendent on slender stalks , simple or branched, terete or flattened, yellow or olive specked with yellow, often anastomosed and when fully developed forming a 3-dimensional network . Peridium single, pale yellow, bearing deposits of yellow or ochraceous lime. Stalks, when present, yellow, filiform , merging with the strands of the hypothallus. Capillitium elastic, composed of a persistent net-work of colourless tubules, the junctions mostly limeless but bearing a few yellow fusiform calcareous nodes, expanding to several times its original size upon the breaking up of the peridium. Spore-mass black. Spores pale violaceous-brown, minutely punctate , 7-8 µm diam.

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 3,037 meters (0 to 9,964 feet).[1]

Taxonomy

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Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 19-Nov-2004

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Frontonia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 1 species and subspecies in this genus:

F. frigida (Brown-Banded Cusk-Eel)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 28, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Mean = 317.670 meters (1,042.224 feet), Standard Deviation = 536.810 based on 474 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-05-03