Tracing a Hornwort-Consuming Beast

Volume 86 January 1996 ISSN 0253-4738 Contents Tracing a hornwort-consuming beast .................... 1 Graduate Assistantships in Bryology .................... 2 Biographies of German Bryologists ...................... 2 New addresses ...................................................... 2 Nees von Esenbeck, Christian Gottfried Daniel (1776-1858) .................................................... 3 BRYONET is running .......................................... 4 News from the Bryology Lab., Kumaon Univ ....... 4 Some Reminiscences of Olle Mårtensson .............. 4 News from Helsinki .............................................. 5 IAB Conference, Mexico City 1995 ..................... 6 Flora Neotropica: progress report for 1995 ........... 7 Cryptogamica Helvetica ....................................... 7 New editors of the Bryological Times ................... 8 New publications .................................................. 8 Bryology revival at the University of Kentucky .... 9 Kinabalu Guide again available ........................... 9 DIARY ............................................................... 10 Tracing a hornwort-consuming beast Irene Bisang, Department of Botany, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm Heike Hofmann, Institut für Systematische Botanik, Zollikerstrasse 107, CH-8008 Zürich Luc Lienhard, Unterer Quai 14, CH-2503 Biel As usually in autumn, we collected (Bisang 1995). Therefore, it was very found. The larvae are about 1.5 cm long plants of Anthoceros agrestis Paton and surprising and unexpected to realise at and of a dirty-grey, rather unspecific Phaeoceros carolinianus (Michx.) one of the usual controls that all (not to say boring) appearance but have Prosk. in a number of arable fields in hornworts had disappeared! In one of a characteristically looking rear end and the surroundings of Bern, Switzerland, the vessels in Switzerland and in that could therefore be recognised as crane- to provide material for student courses. transported to Sweden, not the slight- fly larvae of the genus Tipula (family The hornworts were divided into three est trace of a thallus or a capsule could Tipulidae of the order Diptera). The rear portions which were placed, on their be detected. The third part of the col- end appears like a grimace due to two original substrate, into small flat pots. lection, however, still grew well and breathing pores and six club-like proc- These were put on moist paper in plas- sporophyte maturation continued. esses. Larvae of crane-flies (daddy- tic vessels and covered with a transpar- It has been observed before in the field long-legs) live on living or dead plant ent foil. Two of the jars stayed in Swit- that hornworts can decay rather fast af- material, depending on the species, and zerland and one was brought to Swe- ter dying. However, it usually takes may occur in the soil in large numbers. den. All collections were kept in a win- more than just a few days and remains It was interesting to notice that horn- dow under natural light conditions, the of sporophytes or of Nostoc colonies can worts have apparently been the selected former at about 10 to 15 °C, the latter often be discovered on the soil surface. diet since plants of Bryum sp. in one of at room temperature. At intervals of a What had thus happened in the culture the collections maintained in Switzer- few days, the pots were checked and soil vessels? Drought? Presumably not, land, and a few phanerogam seedlings and paper moistened if necessary by since the soil was still moist in both pots growing in the pot kept in Sweden re- adding a few drops of water. This tech- after the disappearance of the horn- mained untouched. nique for cultivating hornworts has been worts. Sabotage? This seems also very Earlier field experiments have re- proved to be successful in earlier ex- unlikely - whoever would weed horn- vealed that slugs may feed on horn- periments: they increased in size, de- worts? A careful examination of the pots worts, especially on green sporophytes veloped sporophytes and some popu- brought the potential robber to light. In (Bisang, unpubl. data). This corre- lations of both taxa survived several the soil of both cultures where the sponds with previous reports in the lit- years under the conditions described hornworts had vanished a .... larva was Continued on page 2 2 The Bryological Times No. 86, 1996 Continued from page 1 erature on snails grazing immature Biographies of German Bryologists bryophyte capsules (see, for example, In the past, German bryologists were Hampe, Carl Müller, Limpricht, Mön- Davidson & Longton 1987, Davidson numerous compared with other coun- kemeyer and Roth. A great part of et al. 1989). However, the observation tries. The dictionary of German bryo- bryophyte taxa was described by Ger- that bryophyte gametophytes are eaten logists (Frahm 1995) lists several hun- mans, especially in the last century. by invertebrates is quite unusual. dred professionals, amateurs and Many German bryologists were active We conclude that the crane-fly (Tipu- bryophyte collectors. Many of them be- only on a local scale but considerably la) larvae have most probably eaten up came very famous, e.g. Dillenius was enhanced the knowledge the bryology the living plants of Anthoceros agrestis one of the most important prelinnean of Germany. Many were only plant col- and Phaeoceros carolinianus, both bryologists. Hedwig obtained with his lectors such as Crüger, Deppe, Drege, gametophytes and sporophytes; and we opus „Species Muscorum“ the starting Ecklon, Fendler and many others, who would enjoy to hear if any of the read- point for the nomenclature of mosses. are commemorated in many species ers has made similar observations. Hofmeister unravelled the life cycle of names. However, beside their scientific LITERATURE CITED: bryophytes. Bruch, Schimper und publications little is known about these Bisang I. 1995. On the phenology of Gümbel wrote the Bryologia Europaea, Anthoceros agrestis Paton with special ref- persons, their life and their personali- erence to Central Europe. Fragm. Flor. the first European bryoflora. Gottsche, ties. There were many tragedies and Geobot. 40(1): 513-518. Lindenberg and Stephani were the most many had difficult lives, but these are Davidson A.J. & R.E. Longton 1987. famous hepaticologists of their era. generally not known. Who knows, for Acceptability of mosses as food for a Warnstorf published the only conspec- instance, that Geheeb died mentally dis- herbivor, the slug, Arion hortensis. Symp. tus of the Sphagnum species of the turbed, that Nees had to leave Bonn Biol. Hungarica 35: 707-719. world. Max Fleischer had important University because he had an affair with Davidson A.J., J.B. Harborne & R.E. impact on moss systematics, which was the wife of the rector and was finally Longton 1989. Identification of hydroxy- followed until recently, Herzog devel- fired from his position because he was cinnamic and phenolic acids in Mnium oped the bryogeography. Other famous hornum and Brachythecium rutabulum and a communist and died as a poor man, their possible role in the protection against German bryologists were, amongst oth- or that the specialization of Karl Müller herbivory. Journ. Hattori Bot. Lab. 67: 415- ers, Schwägrichen, Bridel, Funck, Nees in hepaticology went back to his time 422. von Esenbeck, Lehmann, Hornschuch, at high school, when he decided with his classmate Theodor Herzog to share GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIPS IN bryology between them. Many died without an orbituary because they were BRYOLOGY not professionals but private scientists Under the sponsorship of the National Biology Department offers a selection or because of war times, where journals Science Foundation PEET program, of more than 40 graduate courses, in- were not published. The dictionary of graduate assistantships (Ph.D. or M.S.) cluding three in bryology, taught by 18 German bryologists gives as many de- are available at Southern Illinois Uni- full time faculty. In addition, doctoral tails as could be extracted from the versity-Carbondale, for students inter- student participants in the project will available sources, however, in German. ested in the biology and systematics of have the opportunity to spend one se- Therefore I was asked to translate the liverworts. Each graduate assistant will mester of their studies at the University biographies of some of the more well be mentored by Dr. Raymond Stotler of California at Berkeley, where they known bryologists in a series which and Dr. Barbara Crandall-Stotler as a will participate in a course in phylo- shall be continued. participant in a world-wide mono- genetics, under the supervision of Dr. Jan-Peter Frahm, Botanisches graphic study of the phylogenetically Brent Mishler. Each assistantship pro- Institut, Meckenheimer Allee 170, pivotal, cosmopolitan simple thalloid vides a monthly stipend, complete tui- 53115 Bonn, Germany. liverwort suborder Fossombroniineae. tion and partial payment of fees for the Each participant in the project will gain duration of graduate study. For appli- field experience and learn standard cation information and materials, con- New addresses taxonomic methods as well as statisti- tact: Dr. Raymond Stotler, Department A correction from the last issue is cal methods for analyzing variation of Plant Biology, Mail Code 6509 necessary. The new address of of Prof. patterns, culture techniques, SEM, com- Southern Illinois University, Carbon- S. Rob Gradstein is: Systematisch- puterized image capturing and analy- dale,

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