ALBERT

Description: By means of modernized sieving techniques 110 m3 of matrix from a gully filling in the Tegelen Clay were sieved. This yielded a good collection of small mammals, which clarifies the stratigraphic position of the Tiglian, a collection of other vertebrates, a small collection of mollusks, and a vast amount of plant material. A good collection of mollusks was made through classical collecting techniques. The faunal lists in this paper constitute a considerable enlargement of the known Tegelen fauna. Collecting is continuing, and further additions to the fauna may be expected.

Description: Some details are given on the bryophyte vegetation in an old clay pit near Venlo. Due to burrowing activities, the bottom of the pit has a very broken surface, and in the upper soil layer sand, sandy clay and pure clay (from the Tiglien formation) replace each other. On some places water comes out of the soil. Some locally important bryophyte unions (in the sense of Barkman 1973) are described. An impoverished form of the Haplomitrium- Fossombronia incurva union occurs on moist sandy ground. On a steep, south-exposed, dry clay edge a fragment of the Aloinetum rigidae was found. The wet clayey parts are occupied by a vegetation mainly consisting of Leiocolea badensis and Anisothecium varium, for which a new union is proposed, the Leiocolea badensis- Anisothecium varium union. On a steep sandy side the rare species Anisothecium rufescens, Mniobryum lutescens and Trichodon cylindricus were found; the last two species have not been reported from the Netherlands before. In conclusion, the importance of such clay pits in general and this one in particular as refugia for bryophyte flora and vegation is stressed.

Description: In Senecio jacobaea L. two forms with non-radiating capitules are distinguished: a.) a non-heritable form, hence of no systematic value, occurring incidentally throughout the area of the species, with the outer ray of fruits nearly glabrous like in normal radiating forms of the species, and b.) a heritable (DE VRIES, 1901) form with a distinct area (fig. 1) with all fruits equally hairy (probably by reduction of the outer ray of flowers). The distribution of the latter form, provisionally called Senecio jacobaea var. nudus Weston (Bot. Univ. 3, 1772, p. 641; syn.: S. jacobaea var. floseulosus Lamk. et DC.; S. dunensis Dum.), is given from herbarium material and literature; var. nudus fully replaces the type variety in the dunes in the Netherlands southwards to IJmuiden, only in the dunes between IJmuiden and Den Haag both the radiating form and var. nudus are found together (at present the latter is very common whereas the radiating form is rare, but at the end of the last century this situation was reverse). Var. nudus may be worth the rank of subspecies. A probable hybrid S. aquaticus X jacobaea var. nudus is recorded from the island of Terschelling.

Description: Foraminiferal collections from Java and Borneo stored in the Netherlands National Museum of Geology and Mineralogy in Leiden enables to study the range of variation in Lepidocyclina ferreroi and L. multilobata. Taken separately many features considered typical of L. multilobata and L. ferreroi are insufficient to identify the specimens. When typically developed both species are highly characteristic and easily distinguished. Transitional forms however cannot be classified with certainty. Possibly L. multilobata has evolved from L. ferreroi but too little is known about the ages of the two species, especially of L. multilobata. L. crucifera is probably a form of L. ferreroi with four rays distinguished by the development of more than one tubercle on each ray. A questionable occurrence of L. multilobata in Madagascar is discussed.

Description: De Mordellidae vormen een interessante familie, waarvan de laatste decennia een intensieve bewerking plaatsvond door K. Ermisch (1956-1969). Zijn determineertabellen in \xe2\x80\x9eDie K\xc3\xa4fer Mitteleuropas" (1969) dienden voor deze revisie van de in het Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie te Leiden aanwezige Mordellidae uit de collecties van Ed. Everts, F. T. Valck Lucassen, J. J. de Vos tot Nederveen Cappel, S. C. Snellen van Vollenhoven, H. J. Veth, H. van der Vaart, F. J. M. Heylaerts, H. C. Bl\xc3\xb6te, C. de Jong, P. J. Brakman en anderen.\nDe biologie van de Mordellidae is nog maar zeer ten dele bekend. Verschillende soorten ontwikkelen zich als larven in vermolmd hout, andere in plantenstengels. Als imago zijn ze op bloemen te vinden in de maanden juni en juli, enkele soorten reeds in mei zoals het geslacht Anaspis, Mordellistena pentas en Mordellochroa abdominalis.\nBij de coleopterologen staan ze bekend door de schokkende bewegingen die ze met hun schuitvormige lichamen in het vangnet maken, vandaar de naam spartelkevers. Dit is m.i. niet alleen een reactie door verontrusting, maar vooral omdat de poten geen normaal houvast vinden en dan automatisch blijven grijpen. Benadert men ze, terwijl ze op een composiet zitten, heel rustig, dan kan men ze meestal ongestoord waarnemen, en er zelfs de mondzuiger feilloos opzetten, zonder dat tevoren enige schokkende beweging optreedt.\nHet determineren heeft zijn eigen moeilijkheden, die men in belangrijke mate kan voorkomen door onmiddellijk na de vangst goed te prepareren. De kevers mogen alleen gedood worden met azijnaether; elk ander dodingsmiddel maakt het uitprepareren van de genitali\xc3\xabn zeer moeilijk en bij gedroogde

Description: One of the fungi with very variable basidia is Corticium udicola Bourd., showing in the same basidiocarp all stages between sessile clavate basidia, podo- and pleurobasidia. Interesting features are the large sterigmata \xe2\x80\x94 not often found in species of Corticiaceae \xe2\x80\x94 and the amyloid spores. For this species Hauerslev (1974) created the monotypic genus Melzericium, based on his own collection from Sweden. A stay at the Museum National d\xe2\x80\x99Histoire Naturelle in Paris gave the opportunity to study all the specimens of Corticium udicola. Soon it was evident that the collections contained two different but closely related species, one of which agreed very well with the descriptions given by Bourdot (1910) and Bourdot & Galzin (1928). The second species is characterized by a deviating shape of the spores which is rather unique in the Corticiaceae. The first and obviously more common species is at the same time identical with Hauerslev\xe2\x80\x99s specimen from Sweden. For the second species no name is available. It is, as far as I know, in France only represented by its type specimen, but is also found in North Sweden (Strid, 1975; sub Melzericium udicola).\nCorticium udicola was one of the first species which Bourdot described. Since he was the most important promotor of our knowledge of the Corticiaceae, I find it appropriate to name the second species after him.

Description: I recorded this species from Mt Kinabalu, North Borneo, in typical form and as var. concolor (Corner, 1970: 259). One copious collection of var. stricta, namely RSNB 5742, I distributed to several herbaria. The fruit-bodies in this case had grown in large numbers, in places almost caespitose, along a fallen rotten trunk in Trigonobalanus-forest at 1600 m; they were old, but not effete and in many the branches, with thickened hymenium, had sagged and become divaricate (Corner, 1970: pl. 3). The interest of the collection was clear at the time. The second collection, RSNB 8475, consisted of younger fruit-bodies with the characteristic fastigiate branching. Now two duplicates of the first collection, RSNB 5742, have been studied by Petersen (1975), who refers that at the Bureau of Plant Industry (Maryland) to Ramaria africana Petersen (l.e.: 110) and that at Leiden to R. polypus Corner (l.c.: 120). In both cases he overlooks the field-notes which I had published in 1970, and they show that, with yellow tips to the branches, vinescent tissue, and fragrance of aniseed, the collection does not belong with either of those species. When I run down the collection in Petersen\xe2\x80\x99s key (1975: 104), it comes to R. stricta var. alba (which it is not) or R. stricta var. stricta. It may be supposed that I had confused two or three species at the time of collection, but I clearly recall the occasion and am certain that this was not the case. In fact I do not recall any instance where two or more species of clavarioid fungi had grown intermixed. Hence I conclude that the fruitbodies of RSNB 5742 bore the two kinds of spore by which Petersen seeks to distinguish R. africana (1975: 137, fig. 10) and R. polypus (1975: 139, fig. 15), though he is not definite on this point, and that fruit-bodies macroscopically identical with R. stricta produce spores which differ from those that Petersen regards as typical (Petersen, 1967: figs. 3d, e). To me this indicates the slight variations in spore that may occur in a species of such wide distribution.\nIn distinguishing R. africana, R. kisantuensis, R. molleriana, and R. polypus, Petersen introduces a character which seems to me very dubious. He separates the first two because they have the slender skeletal hyphae of the mycelial subiculum or rhizomorphs also in the tissue at the base of the stem of the fruit-body, and they are absent from the base in the other two species. The state in R. stricta is not described by Petersen (1975) but it agrees with that of R. molleriana (Corner, 1950). Now the base of the stem is a transitional region from rhizomorph or subiculum to the fruitbody and it is generally impossible to decide exactly where one begins and the other stops. In the transition skeletal hyphae of the rhizomorph variously intrude into the beginning of the stem, as the carry-over of one construction to another; in old fruit-bodies the mycelial hyphae, with skeletals, may extend up, over, and into the stem. Hence I have avoided this region for a diagnostic purpose; many collections, indeed, do not have the feature because the fruit-bodies had been torn off the wood. I note that this dimitic state is not that of Ramaria subgen. Lentoramaria ser. Dimiticae in which the skeletal hyphae occur throughout the fruit-body.

Description: Several species of Mortierella described until 1930 are today unknown since living cultures are unavailable. The diagnoses of most of these species have been reproduced by Linnemann (in Zycha & Siepmann, 1970). but it is difficult to assess the justification of their retention. Recently Kuhlman & Hodges (1972) rediscovered M. rostafinskii Bref. and M. strangulata Tiegh., two similar but distinct species. This contribution concerns the rediscovery of another so far problematic species.\nDuring the study of the fungal flora of the Heseper Moor near Meppen, Niedersachsen, F. R. G., Mortierella turficola Ling Yong (1930) was found to be the predominating Mortierella species. A stand of Sphagnum recurvum P. Beauv. with some Eriophorum vaginatum L. (pH c. 4.8) was sampled on 28 June 1976 during a very hot period. Warcup\xe2\x80\x99s soil plates were poured from various zones of decaying Sphagnum plants. Mortierella turficola appeared on 75% of the plates from the yellow zone at the foot of the living plants, on 85-100% of the plates from the underlaying brown zone and on 0-25% of the plates from the next, yellow zone at 8-10 cm below the surface of the living plants. Mortierella exigua Linnem. was once found in addition to M. turficola.

Description: Filago lutescens Jord., a long neglected species in the flora of the Netherlands and now most likely extinct, was recognized among material of F. pyramidata L. Differences between F. lutescens and its close allies F. pyramidata and F. vulgaris Lamk. are tabulated and an account of their distribution in the Netherlands is given.

Description: Near Staverden (province of Gelderland) there is a moist heath where a calcareous loam is found mostly very close to the surface. In the past the loam was exploited in several places, which resulted in an unevenness of the terrain and in a number of gradients (wet-dry, rich in humus \xe2\x80\x94 poor in humus, lime-rich \xe2\x80\x94 poor in lime). The more or less permanently waterfilled loam pits contain a rich desmid flora characteristic of a mesotrophic environment. Among the taxa recorded from this locality four are new for the Netherlands, viz., Staurastrum sexcostatum var. productum, Cosmarium annulatum, C. decedens var. apertum, and C. notabile. Of common occurrence in more oligotrophic shallow depressions filled with Sphagnum found at other sites in the area are, e.g., Staurastrum arnellii and its var. spiniferum. We agree with MESSIKOMMER (1929) in doubting whether these two taxa indeed represent one species. The \xe2\x80\x98typical\xe2\x80\x99 variety of S. arnellii may well belong in the affinity of S. muricatum and S. hirsutum, whereas the var. spiniferum rather belongs near S. scabrum.