PDD 48204

Fruiting body a stalked sporangium, gregarious or closely aggregated, up to 2 mm in total height. Sporotheca globose, erect, yellow-brown to dark, often purplish brown, 0.5–0.8 mm in diameter. Stalk dark, cylindrical, rarely more than twice the diameter of the sporotheca. Hypothallus membranous, dark brown. Peridial net originating as 20–30 strong ribs, often united by a membrane and then forming a more or less fugacious calyculus occupying the lower third, the upper part anastamosing to form a network, without nodal thickenings, the connecting membrane often persisting in part as an iridescent wall, apex rounded; dictydine granules dark, rather conspicuous, densely massed on and in the ribs and strands of the net and on the spores, 1.5–2 µm in diameter. Spores reddish brown in mass, hyaline, rather dark by transmitted light, minutely roughened, mostly 5.5–7.0 µm in diameter. Plasmodium unknown.

Decaying wood, particularly that of conifers.

Like Cribraria cancellata, this species was placed in the genus Dictydium in most earlier treatments of the myxomycetes. The fruiting bodies of C. mirabilis are very similar to those of C. cancellata but tend to be somewhat larger and more erect. Moreover, the transverse connecting filaments between the prominent ribs of the peridial net are much more apparent, especially in the upper half of the sporotheca.