Trichia craterioides Martin, Brittonia 14: 183. 1962, applied to a collection from New Zealand, is a later homonym of T. craterioides Corda, Ic. Fung. 2: 21. 1838. Corda's species was cited by G. Lister in 1911, in the second edition of The Mycetozoa, as a synonym of T. varia Pers., without comment or suggestion that anyone had examined the type. This citation was repeated in the third edition of 1925, was copied by Macbride and Martin in 1934 and again by Martin in 1944. Reference to Corda's description and his illustration, plate 12, fig. 85, makes this assignment extremely questionable. The identity of Corda's species must remain uncertain until his type, which may still exist in Prague, can be reexamined. The name should not, of course, have been given to what is certainly a different species. I therefore propose Trichia crateriformis nom. nov. for the New Zealand species.

BPI 835163

Fruiting body a stalked sporangium, scattered, 0.8–1.5 mm tall. Sporotheca obovate to subconical, flattened above, 0.5–1.5 mm broad, sharply divided between a basal cup and an operculum, the cup membranous, more or less furrowed. Stalk short, usually less than half the total height of the sporangium. Hypothallus inconspicuous. Peridium umber brown, shining except for the dull coloured operculum. Capillitium ample, brownish ochraceous, yellow by transmitted light, the filaments uniformly 7–8 µm in diameter, except at the tips, bearing 4 or 5 prominent spirals with few or no spines, the tips long-tapering, the filaments often bent in the middle and the two halves spirally twisted about each other. Spores globose or ovoid, yellow in mass, pale yellow by transmitted light, warted, 11–12 µm in diameter. Plasmodium unknown.

This apparently very rare species was described originally from a specimen collected in Mid Canterbury (Martin 1962) and has been reported from only a few other localities worldwide (Frederick et al. 1983). Arambarri (1975) reported several collections from Tierra del Fuego, which at least suggests that the species has a distribution centred in high-latitude regions of the Southern Hemisphere.

Decaying wood.

Martin (1962), Martin & Alexopoulos (1969), Arambarri (1975).

This species is the only member of the genus Trichia to have a clearly discernible preformed operculum and can be recognised by this feature alone.