ISSN 1809-127X (online edition) © 2010 Check List and Authors Chec List Open Access | Freely available at www.checklist.org.br Journal of species lists and distribution N Myxomycetes, state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil PECIES S 1 2 2* OF , Antônia Aurelice Aurélio Costa ISTRIBUITIO D ISTS L Maria Helena Alves and Laise de Holanda Cavalcanti 1 Universidade Federal do Piauí, Campus Ministro Reis Velloso. Avenida São Sebastião, 2819. CEP 64202-020. Parnaíba, PI, Brazil. RAPHIC 2 Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Botânica, Laboratório de Myxomycetes. Avenida Professor G [email protected] Moraes Rego s/n. CEP 50670–901. Cidade Universitária. Recife, PE, Brazil. EO * Corresponding author. E-mail: G N O Abstract: 2 OTES Thirty , fouris one genera of the andleast 215 explored species of ofthe Myxomycetes nine states in arethis present region ofin the northeastern country, with Brazil, records covering of 27 N 83 % of families, all subclasses and orders recognized for these microorganisms. Ceará, with an area of 148,825,602 km species, distributed across 13 genera, occurring in a humid forest environment of the southern mesoregion. The dominant vegetation type is the Caatinga (dry, tree-shrub deciduous vegetation), with patches of Cerrado (savanna-like vegetation), Carrasco (montane deciduous shrub vegetation) and fragments of Pluvio-nebular northernTropical Subperennialand northwestern Forest mesoregions. and Pluvial TheTropical specimens Subdeciduous obtained Forest. were depositedIn order to at betterthe UFP document Herbarium. the diversity of myxomycetes in that state, specimens were collected from the field betweenComatricha 2002-2007, Crateriumin Ceará’s and Metatrichia increase the number of genera which comprise Ceará’s myxobiota to 16. Arcyria denudata, EighteenCraterium species leucocephalum were recorded,, Badhamia occurring panicea in the, B. Caatingamelanospora vegetation, Didymium and the intermedium records of , Metatrichia vesparia, Physarum rigidum and P. tenerum are new records for Ceará, increasing the number of species known to occur in the state to 37. Introduction The state of Ceará is located on the northeastern region of Brazil, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, the 2002;woody Araújo plants etare al strongly influenced by topography, type state of Pernambuco to the south, the states of Rio Grande isof estimatedsoil, and, particularly,in around 600 by species,rainfall (Lemosand approximately and Rodal do Norte and Paraíba to the east, and the state of Piauí to . 1998). The woodyet al flora of the Caatinga the west. With a predominantly Warm Tropical Semiarid frequent families are Cactaceae, Caesalpinaceae, Fabaceae, Euphorbiaceae1/3 of them are and endemic Mimosaceae, (Leal mainly. 2003). represented The most by Caesalpinia pyramidalis Mimosa microregionsclimate, in this (IPECE state, 2007). five phytogeographical units are and Croton (Araújo et al. recognized, with seven mesoregions divided into 33 The destruction of Tul. their and severalnatural specieshabitat of due to 1998). Ceará’s northwestern mesoregion presents varied Forest,vegetation, the Thornyincluding Deciduous the Pluvio-nebular Forest, and theTropical Open anthropogenic activities has strongly threatened the ShrubbySubperennial Caatinga Forest, (IPECE the Pluvial2007). ThisTropical mesoregion Subdeciduous holds degradationflora and the leads fauna not of onlythe Caatinga,to the soil with erosion some andspecies the already extinct and others endangered. This vegetation areas representative of the Caatinga bioma classified desertification risk, but also to genetic erosion and loss of in different levels of biological importance, taking into biodiversity. (Vellosoaccount, etbesides al. 2002). the degree In Ceará’s of endanger northern for mesoregion, fauna and flora the The establishment of conservation units of the elements, their extension and viability of conservation tobiodiversity document of the the species Caatinga present is indicated in the as areas one ofmentioned the steps to be taken to curb the problem. As such, it is necessary predominant vegetation is the Shrubby Caatinga (dense or northeastern Brazil, where this biome occurs. Subperennialopen), and one Forest, can also and find the small Cerrado. fragments In Ceará’s of the southern Pluvio- aboveWith as extremelyregards toimportant, the Caatinga across themicrobiota, nine states the of mesoregion,nebular Tropical which Subperennial also holds extremelyForest, the important Pluvial Tropical areas, a smaller predominance of the Caatinga (IPECE 2007; information is scarce but the fewet published al. 2006). studies Only reveal two Vellosothe vegetation et al. 2002). is similar to the aforementioned, with publicationsan abundance addressand diversity the ofmyxomycetes bryophytes, basidiomycetesthat occur in Ceará,and myxomycetes mentioning the (Cavalcanti presence of 27 species in fragments as wellThe asCaatinga succulent vegetation plants (Cactaceae is characterized and Bromeliaceae). by the presence of thorny deciduous, small-bulk woody species, of humid forest in the microregion of Cariri (Alves and that the density and dominance of the herbaceous and Cavalcanti 1996; Cavalcanti and Putzke 1998). This Floristic and phyto-sociological studies have revealed paper gathers all the known occurring species for Ceará myxobiota, collected between 1994 and 2007, and it aims Check List | Volume 6 | Issue 4 | 2010 555 Alves et al. | Myxomycetes, state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil ecology of myxomycetes, particularly those occurring into provideextremely a baseline important with biological respect toareas, the biodiversitysituated across and different mesoregions of Ceará. Materials And Methods Study area Ceará is one of the nine states in the Brazilian northeast, 2 Figure 1. Representation of the families of recorded Myxomycetes for with an area of 148,825,602 km , which is equivalent the state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil. to 9.57 % of the region. The predominant climate is the typeWarm is Tropicalthe Caatinga, Semiarid, across occurring its different in 68 physiognomies, % of the total Calcareous species (Physaraceae and Didymiaceae) sucharea ofas the the state Arboreal (IPECE 2007).Caatinga, The thedominant Dense vegetation Shrubby Caatinga, and the Open Shrubby Caatinga. Other types of etrepresent al 45 % of the known total for the state (37 spp.); this value is quite close to the one found by Estrada-Torres vegetation are found in the different mesoregions, such group. (2009) of species in a study characteristic carried out of in aridthe aridor regionsemiarid of as the Cerrado (savanna-like vegetation), the Carrasco Mexico (49 %), supporting the existence of a particular (montane deciduous shrub vegetation), andet fragments al The occurrence record of Physarum rigidum is the of Pluvio-nebular Tropical Subperennial Forest and the environments. DataPluvial Collection Tropical and Sub-deciduous Identification Forest (Araujo . 1998). which was recently listed by Parente et al The specimens reported in the current study were second report of this species for the Caatinga vegetation collected between 2002 and 2007, in the municipalities other species in this genus with records in Ceará. (2009) are forwidely the of Graça, Pacujá, Reriutaba, Ibiapina, Itapipoca and Sobral, distributedSerra da Capivara across theNational country, Park, except in the for state P. tenerum of Piauí., with The a located on northern and northwestern mesoregions (Amazonas), one in the southern region (Rio Grande do characteristics (Table 1). known occurrence in only one state in the northern region of ForCeará, the withcollection, distinct herborization vegetational and and storage altitudinal of the states of the northeast (Bahia, Pernambuco, Sergipe), as Sul), one in the southeastern region (São Paulo) and three specimens, the methodology described by Cavalcanti reportedBadhamia by Cavalcanti panicea is(2002), documented Maimoni-Rodella from only (2002) two (1974) was used. Species identification was based on recordsand Putzke from (2002). northeastern Brazil, occurring in Morro do Lister (1925), Martin and Alexopoulos (1969),et Farr al. (1976), Chapéu, in a Caatinga area of Bahia, and in a fragment of Nannenga-Bremekamp (1991) and Lado and Pando with(1997). respect The toclassification the indication system of the by binomials Martin and authors (1983) et al. 2006). This species was collected ofwas the adopted species. and Lado (2001, 2005-2010) was followed inAtlantic the city Forest of Sobral, in the where state thereof Pernambuco is a predominance (Cavalcanti of Dried specimens representing the studied material 2002; Cavalcanti were deposited at the UFP Herbarium. The binomials of the aforementioned taxa for Ceará were updated and an the TheCaatinga second vegetation largest (Tables group 1-2), of butspecies it was belongs found into a annotated list of the species was generated. thehumid Stemonitaceae environment. (Figure 1), which corresponds to Results And Discussion approximatelyStemonaria, Stemonitis 30 % of andthe knownStemonitopsis total for referred the northeast to the (Cavalcanti 2002). In the current study, besides the genera Up to the present moment, the occurrence of seven Comatricha, mesoregion,families, 13 ingenera excursions and 27 carried species out ofin myxomycetesthe microregion is withCrato onlyregion one (Alves specimen and Cavalcanticollected on1996; dead Cavalcanti wood, in and an known in the state of Ceará, all recorded