''Tubifera'' is a
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 ...
of
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 ...
s from the
subclass Myxogastria
Myxogastria/Myxogastrea (myxogastrids, ICZN) or Myxomycetes ( ICN), is a class of slime molds that contains 5 orders, 14 families, 62 genera, and 888 species. They are colloquially known as the ''plasmodial'' or ''acellular ...
. The genus comprises 12 species.
Description
The fruit-bodies are
aethalia formed from numerous, usually densely packed
sporangia
A sporangium (; from Late Latin, ) is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a single cell or can be multicellular. Virtually all plants, fungi, and many other lineages form sporangia at some point in their life cyc ...
. The oblong sporangia are ochre, pink or red to dark brown and may be shiny or shimmering. They open at the tip to release the spores.
The
hypothallus
In true slime molds (myxogastria), lichens, and in species of the family Clavicipitaceae, the hypothallus is the layer on which the fruit body sits, lying in contact with the substrate. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek root ''hypó'' ("u ...
is spongy, occasionally raised to a stem-like, stock, dark-coloured structure or also, on ''Tubifera bombarda'', soft and film-like thin. The membranous, single layered
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 ...
outlasts the below half. A
pseudocapillitium may or may not be present. The spores are light yellow to reddish-brown.
Habitat
''
Tubifera ferruginosa'' and ''
Tubifera microsperma'' are more widespread and common than the other species from this genus.
All species, except ''Tubifera casparyii'', are also common in the tropics.
Classification
The genus was
circumscribed in 1873 by
Józef Thomasz Rostafiński. The
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...
is ''Tubifera ferruginosa'', first characterized as a ''
Stemonitis'' species.
Species
The genus comprises the following 12 species:
* ''
Tubifera applanata''
* ''
Tubifera casparyii''
* ''
Tubifera corymbosa''
* ''
Tubifera dictyoderma''
* ''
Tubifera dimorphotheca''
* ''
Tubifera dudkae''
* ''
Tubifera ferruginosa''
* ''
Tubifera magna''
* ''
Tubifera microsperma''
* ''
Tubifera montana''
* ''
Tubifera papillata''
* ''
Tubifera pseudomicrosperma''
Previously included species
* ''
Alwisia bombarda'' (as ''Tubifera bombarda'')
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2458952
Myxogastria