Cryptogamie,Mycologie, 2009, 30 (4): 377-403 © 2009 Adac. Tous droits réservés Novel fungal taxa from the arid Middle East introduced prior to the year 1940. III. Anamorphic Fungi – Coelomycetes Jean MOUCHACCA Département de Systématique &Evolution (Laboratoire de Cryptogamie), USM 602 Taxonomie &Collections, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Case Postale 39, 57 rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris Cedex 05,France
[email protected] Abstract – The third part of this series surveys 61 coelomycetes described before 1940 with holotypes originating from the Middle East. The taxa concerned were examined in relation to their authors, dates of publication, collectors and original locality. The taxonomic positions were updated following the current taxonomy of the fungi concerned. The two major pre-1940 mid-eastern surveys by Bubák (1914) and Reichert (1921) were also scanned for names of known taxa yet unreported for the area and, for the first author, of novel coelomycetes originating from present-day Turkey, not considered as part of the Middle East. The oldest names Gloeosporium schweinfurthianum and Sphaeropsis calotropidis were introduced by Thümen around 1879, upon examination of Egyptian specimens sent to Berlin by Schweinfurth. Two additional taxa were described before 1900 while none was introduced in the first decade of the 20th century. Most were issued in the second decade of the same (78.3%), thus the contribution of the next two decades was only 15.0%. The protologues of the taxa concerned were elaborated by a few mycologists from Austria, Germany and Italy. Most taxa were described as species of known genera; only four were considered as varieties or forma of known species.