Schnittler Martin, Leontyev Dmytro, Yatsiuk Iryna, Ronikier Anna
Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany University of Greifswald Greifswald Germany.
Department of Botany, H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University Kharkiv Ukraine.
IMA Fungus. 2025 Feb 17;16:e141199. doi: 10.3897/imafungus.16.141199. eCollection 2025.
are a unique branch of life, recognisable by sporophores showing a fungus-like dispersal biology. These structures bear nearly all diagnostic characters for species identification and develop by rapid transformation of plasmodia. During this short period of time, external factors can significantly influence the formation of morphological characters. Therefore, the description of a new species must be carried out with utmost care. Over the last 50 years, approximately 10-15 new species of myxomycetes have been described per year and only some of the latest publications underpin this with molecular data. In this paper, we discuss a set of recommendations for the description of myxomycete species new to science, striving for the following goals: (i) to minimise the number of erroneous descriptions of the species, whose names later have to be put into synonymy; (ii) to make all respective data easily accessible for the scientific community; and (iii) to comply with existing rules of nomenclature. We recommend (1) whenever possible not to describe a new taxon from a single specimen; however, an exception could be made only if supported by molecular data and by unique morphological characters which are unlikely to fall in the range of infraspecific variation of related species; (2) preparing detailed descriptions, including data on developmental stages, microhabitats, ecology, phenology and associated species; (3) providing at least two independent diagnostic characters that tell the new species apart from all others; (4) obtaining a molecular barcode and, whenever possible, providing proof for reproductive isolation of the new species from related taxa; and (5) depositing type specimens in public herbaria. To comply with nomenclatural rules, (6) the new name must be registered in a recognised repository, (7) all published names should be checked for usability before proposing a new name and (8) a unique name should be chosen, preferably highlighting a distinct character of the new species.
黏菌是生命中的一个独特分支，可通过具有类似真菌传播生物学特征的子实体来识别。这些结构承载着几乎所有用于物种鉴定的诊断特征，并通过原生质团的快速转变而发育。在这短暂的时间内，外部因素会显著影响形态特征的形成。因此，描述一个新物种必须极其谨慎。在过去的50年里，每年大约描述10 - 15种黏菌新物种，只有一些最新的出版物用分子数据对此加以佐证。在本文中，我们讨论了一套关于描述科学上新发现的黏菌物种的建议，力求实现以下目标：（i）尽量减少对那些其名称后来不得不被归为同义词的物种的错误描述；（ii）使所有相关数据便于科学界获取；（iii）遵守现有的命名规则。我们建议：（1）尽可能不要从单个标本描述新分类单元；然而，只有在分子数据和独特形态特征的支持下，且这些特征不太可能落在相关物种种下变异范围内时，才可例外；（2）准备详细描述，包括发育阶段、微生境、生态、物候和相关物种的数据；（3）提供至少两个独立的诊断特征，以将新物种与所有其他物种区分开来；（4）获得分子条形码，并尽可能提供新物种与相关分类群生殖隔离的证据；（5）将模式标本存放在公共标本馆。为遵守命名规则，（6）新名称必须在认可的数据库中注册，（7）在提出新名称之前应检查所有已发表名称的可用性，（8）应选择一个独特的名称，最好突出新物种的一个独特特征。
