''Prototrichia metallica'' is a

slime mould Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic organisms with a life cycle that includes a free-living single-celled stage and the formation of spores. Spores are often produced in macroscopic mu ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

from the order

Trichiida Trichiales ( synonymous with Trichiida) is an order of slime moulds Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic organisms with a life cycle that includes a free-living single-celled stage ...

and the only species from the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

''Prototrichia''. It is mainly distributed on mountains.

Characteristics

''Prototrichia metallica'' is a very variable species. The

plasmodium ''Plasmodium'' is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of ''Plasmodium'' species involve development in a blood-feeding insect host which then injects parasites into a ver ...

is white. The fruit bodies are grouped densely. They are orange brown to dull brown, occasionally pink, short stemmed or are lying on a heavily regenerated edge, rarely plasmodiokarp sporokarps with a diameter from 0.5 to 2.2 mm. The membranous

peridium The peridium is the protective layer that encloses a mass of spores in fungi. This outer covering is a distinctive feature of gasteroid fungi. Description Depending on the species, the peridium may vary from being paper-thin to thick and rubbe ...

is transparently thin and shinily iridescent-coloured. Its surface is composed of a coarse mesh arrangement of wrinkled lines, along which it later divides into pieces. The

capillitium Capillitium (pl. capillitia) is a mass of sterile fibers within a fruit body interspersed among spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended p ...

is often irregular, usually due to the presence of several yellow-brown, translucent spirally banded strands, which divide towards the outer end. The branches are often intertwined spirals, which sometimes form a network. Many of the outer ends are fused with the upper part of the peridium wall. The spirals are occasionally missing. The thorny spores are pink as mass, orange-brown to brown, individually yellow and have a diameter from 10 to 13, rarely up to 15 µm.

Habitat

''Prototrichia metallica'' has been found in mountainous area of

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, Europe, western North America and South America. It was first found in South America in 1976. It is a "nivicol", meaning that it grows on the snow line at the time of snowmelt.

Classification

The species was first described in 1859 as ''Trichia metallica'' by

Miles Joseph Berkeley Miles Joseph Berkeley (1 April 1803 – 30 July 1889) was an English cryptogamist and clergyman, and one of the founders of the science of plant pathology. Life Berkeley was born at Biggin Hall, Benefield, Northamptonshire, and educated at R ...

and the genus in 1876 by Joszef Tomasz Rostafinski. ''Prototrichia'' was for a long time classified in

Dianemidae Trichiales (synonymous with Trichiida) is an order of slime moulds in the phylum Amoebozoa. Trichiales is one of five orders in the group Myxomycetes (also called Myxogastria), or the true plasmodial slime molds. It is also currently categorized ...

, periodically even as a separate family of Prototrichiaceae. Since the end of the 1960s, it was asserted that this species is part of Trichiidae. Charles Meylan described in 1921 a further species, ''Prototrichia schroeteri'', and the name is usually the synonym. Nowotny, however, believes that it is a separate species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q2113791, from2=Q19839181 Myxogastria