Physarum calidris Lister, J. Bot.

Lado, Carlos & Basanta, Diana Wrigley De, 2018, Typification of the myxomycete taxa described by the Listers and preserved at the Natural History Museum, London (BM), Phytotaxa 341 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

Physarum calidris Lister, J. Bot. 29: 258. 1891

≡ Lignydium calidris (Lister) Kuntze, Revis. gen. pl. 3: 490. 1898

= Physarum pusillum (Berk. & M.A. Curtis) G. Lister, in Lister, Monogr. mycetozoa, ed. 2 64. 1911

TYPUS: Not found .

NOTES: Lister (1891: 258) gave the type location as “On dead leaves, Lyme Regis, January, 1890” and on pages 258–259 other material is mentioned “In Broome’s collection in the British Museum three specimens very closely resemble the Lyme Regis gatherings of P. calidris . No. 453, under the name of P. elephantinum B. & Br., from Ceylon, is a larger form, with sporangia 0.8 mm. diam., and is on wood, but appears to be otherwise identical. No. 576, marked Didymium ?, from Thwaites, Ceylon, is on wood, and seems to be the same species as the last, but is not in such good preservation. No. 496, marked Tilmadoche nutans , from Palma, has clear red erect stalks, and only differs from the Lyme specimens in the smaller size of the lime-knots; it is on dead leaves of grass.”.

In BM we did not locate the original material from January 1890, only later collections from the same and different localities. There are notes (notebook III: 27) that appear to refer to the fisrt time the species was found “Gulie has also found in two places in Ivy Hollow, a very beautiful Physarum which she calls Physarum calidris after the red stalk, the long orange red stalks suggesting the bird. It seems to be an undescribed species; growing on dead leaves with large lime vesicles in the capillitium.”. The species is considered by Lister (1911) herself, to be a synonym of P. pusillum (Berk. & M.A. Curtis) G. Lister, and the synonymy is currently upheld.