Staheliomyces

Staheliomyces is a fungal genus in the stinkhorn family. The genus is monotypic, containing the single neotropical species Staheliomyces cinctus, also known as the strangled stinkhorn. It is found in Central America and northern South America.[1] The fruit body of the fungus is a hollow, whitish, cylindric stalk up to 16 cm (6.3 in) tall, with conspicuous pits and holes. Near the top of the stalk is a pinched-off zone covered with unpleasant-smelling slimy spore mass called gleba. The gleba attracts insects like stingless bees that help disseminate the spores.

Staheliomyces
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Fungi
Division:
Basidiomycota
Class:
Agaricomycetes
Order:
Phallales
Family:
Phallaceae
Genus:
Staheliomyces

E.Fisch. (1921)
Type species
Staheliomyces cinctus
E.Fisch. (1921)
Staheliomyces cinctus
float
Mycological characteristics
glebal hymenium
no distinct cap
spore print is olive-brown
ecology is saprotrophic
edibility: inedible

Taxonomy

The genus was first described scientifically by the German mycologist Eduard Fischer in 1921. The specific epithet honors Gerold Stahel who collected the type specimen in Suriname.[2] The fungus has been called the "strangled stinkhorn".[3]

Description

Like all stinkhorns, the fruit body begins its development as a partially submerged "egg" form attached to rhizomorphs. The egg is roughly ovoid, measuring 1.5 to 2 cm (0.6 to 0.8 in) by 1.2–1.6 cm (0.5–0.6 in).[4] The fruit body consists of a spongy, hollow white stalk between 12–16 cm (4.7–6.3 in) tall,[5] with a collar of greenish-brown gleba positioned above the center, but below the apex. The glebal band is constricted compared to the width of the remainder of the stalk, between 1 and 2 cm (0.4 and 0.8 in) thick. The cap, or receptaculum, is at the top of the stalk; it is spongy, conical, and chambered, free from gleba. A volva sits at the base of the stem, and has rhizomorphs attached to it.[6] The spores are elliptical, hyaline (translucent), and measure 2.5–3 by 1.2–1.5 μm.[7] The edibility of the mushroom is unknown.[4]

Habitat and distribution
Trigona spinipes

Staheliomyces is a saprobic species, and typically found in soil rich with decomposing plant remains.[5] It is found in Costa Rica to Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Guiana, and Bolivia,[7][8] where it appears during rainy seasons.[5]

A field study from Ecuador reported that the fruit bodies of Staheliomyces are visited by species from the stingless bee genus Trigona. The bee visits are several minutes in duration, during which time small portions of the gleba are collected and stored in the pollen basket (corbiculae) of the hind legs. The authors determined that the corbiculae of approaching bees are always empty. Bee corbiculae are normally used to carry food and nest-building material, and the gleba of Staheliomyces may be used for one of these purposes, but the authors did not observe the bees after they had collected the gleba.[9]

References
  1. Zeller SM. (1948). "Notes on certain Gasteromycetes, including two new orders". Mycologia. 40 (6): 639–68. doi:10.2307/3755316. JSTOR 3755316. PMID 18102856.
  2. Fischer E. (1920). "Mykologische Beiträge 18–20. Staheliomyces cinctus, ein neuer Typus aus der Gruppe der Phalloideen. Über Onygena arietina Ed. Fischer. Die Heteroecie von zwei auf Polygonum alpinum wohnenden Puccinien". Mitteilungen der Naturforschung Gesellschaft in Bern (in German): 142.
  3. Kibby G. (2015). "The weird, wonderful and smelly world of stinkhorns and clathroid fungi". Field Mycology. 16 (2): 58–69. doi:10.1016/j.fldmyc.2015.04.008.
  4. Phillips R. "Staheliomyces cinctus". Rogers Mushrooms. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
  5. Kuo M. (2009). "Staheliomyces cinctus (MushroomExpert.Com)". MushroomExpert.Com. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
  6. Miller HR, Miller OK (1988). Gasteromycetes: Morphological and Developmental Features, with Keys to the Orders, Families, and Genera. Eureka, California: Mad River Press. pp. 77–8, 87. ISBN 0-916422-74-7.
  7. Leite AG, Silva BD, Araújo RS, Baseia IG (2007). "Espécies raras de Phallales (Agaricomycetidae, Basidiomycetes) no Nordeste do Brasil" [Rare species of Phallales (Agaricomycetidae, Basidiomycetes) in Northeast Brazil]. Acta Botanica Brasilica (in Spanish). 21 (1): 119–124. doi:10.1590/S0102-33062007000100011.
  8. Saenz JA, Nassar MC (1982). "Hongos de Costa Rica: Familias Phallaceae y Clathraceae". Revista de Biología Tropical (in Spanish). 30 (1): 41–52.
  9. Burr B, Barthlott S, Westerkamp C (1996). "Staheliomyces (Phallales) visited by Trigona (Apidae): melittophily in spore dispersal of an Amazonian stinkhorn?". Journal of Tropical Ecology. 12 (3): 441–5. doi:10.1017/s0266467400009652. ISSN 0266-4674.
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