Les Myxomycètes (2-Volume Set) [The Myxomycetes]

About this book

Language: The volume with determination keys is bilingual in French and English. The volume with plates has French figure legends only.

The books have compiled information on 853 taxa of myxomycetes (530 of them are illustrated in colour) in two complementary but inseparable volumes. The first volume deals with the biology and ecology of these organisms and the authors present keys of the species included, and add brief descriptions of each. These descriptions include macroscopic and microscopic characters and there is references to the corresponding plate in the second volume where the species is illustrated. Species from all five orders presently recognised in the Class Myxomycetes are included (Liceales, Echinosteliales, Trichiales, Physarales, and Stemomitales), and the nomenclature employed throughout follows the latest version of Nomenmyx. A glossary of descriptive terms and an index of taxa, as well as bibliographic references, complete this volume.

The second volume is edited on special photographic paper and includes all the illustrations. Each species is dealt with in the form of an index card with the scientific name of the taxon, one or more macro-photographs in colour illustrating the habit of the species. Structurally significant details of the sporotheca, the capillitium or the peridium are sometimes also photographed and line drawings of relevant microscopic characters, such as the spore type and ornamentation or the capillitium, are included. The plate captions give the origin and details of material illustrated. Each photograph or figure is accompanied by the magnification used rather than a scale bar. There is extensive coverage of the nivicolous species, a group of myxomycetes of which the authors are well-known specialists, and there are some important novelties among the illustrations

This rigorous and critical work, well coordinated by the three authors, is a pleasure to read and use. The project which began as a contribution to the recognition of nivicolous species of myxomycetes is now a treatise of myxomycetes from all over the world, of irrefutable scientific value, which should be included in every library of specialists, amateurs or other people interested in the myxomycetes.

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