Mycological societies of the world: The African mycological association

Volume 10, Part 1, February 1996

Hairs superficial, pale brown to brown, cylindricwith apical cell somewhat clavate, blunt, mostlythick-walled, 40.0-120 x 3.0-9.0 [lm, (0-)1-2(-3)-septate. Ectal excipulum of textura globulosa totextura angularis, cells (11.0-) 20.0-35.0 x (8.0-)14.0-28.0 [lm, more elongate and narrowertowards the margin, walls 0.5-1.0 [lm thick,colourless, becoming pale brown towards the sur-face. Medullary excipulum of textura intricata,comprising fine, thin-walled hyphae. Asci oper-culate, not blueing in iodine, cylindric, taperingtowards the base, 160-210 x 9.0-15.0 [lm, (4-)8-spored, spores uniseriate. Ascospores unicellular,colourless, ellipsoid, smooth, 14.0-17.0 x 7.0-9.5 [lm, (1-)2-guttulate, often with a de Bary bub-ble in dried material. Paraphyses filiform, slen-der, septate, sometimes branched, straight,slightly enlarged at the apex to 4.0-6.0 [lm diam.,containing orange granules, apically agglutinatedand immersed in a yellowish-brown matrix.

Pezizales - Otideaceae - Anthracobia Boud.

Other remarks: This species is widely distrib-

uted and frequent to common in Britain.Elsewhere, it has been widely reported but, dueto inconsistency in delimitation of taxa andapplication of the name, records should be inter-preted with caution. The conspicuous marginalhairs, disc colour and ascospore size of A. melalo-ma are diagnostic. Anthracobia maurilabra(Cooke) Boud. has similar hairs but differs in itsduller, brownish-orange disc and largerascospores (17.0-21.0 (-23.0) x 7.0-9.5 (-10.5) um).Anthracobia macrocystis (Cooke) Boud. also haslarger ascospores and differs further in lackingwell-developed hairs. For a detailed discussionof British species of Anthracobia see Yao &Spooner (1995) and for a description of A. macro-cystis see Yao & Spooner (1994).

ReferencesHohmeyer, H.H. & Schnackertz, H. (1987) Beitriige zur

Kenntnis der Pilze Mitleleuropas 3, 427-438; Yao, Y. -J. & Spooner, B.M. (1994). Mycologist 8: 107-108; Yao,Y. -J. & Spooner, B.M. (1995) Mycol. Res. 99: 1519-1520

Y. -J Yao & B.M. Spooner

MYCOLOGICAL SOCIETIES OF THE WORLD:THE AFRICAN MYCOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

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With the newly formed African MycologicalAssociation (AMA) led by a zealous executivecommittee with a wealth of experience in myco-logical research, it is anticipated that many newinteresting findings will be obtained by the year2000. It is sincerely hoped that the products ofmycological research within this continent willcontribute greatly towards the advancement ofagriculture and forestry, food industries, biotech-nology and medicine.

The idea of organising mycology on theAfrican continent was first mooted in Tampa,Florida at the Second International MycologicalCongress, following which the InternationalMycological Association Executive Council in1987 appointed Professor A. Peerally as Chairmanof its Committee for the Development ofMycology in Africa (CODMA). The first AfricanMycology Conference (RMCl), organised by Prof.Peerally, was held in Mauritius on 13-15 June1990 and attracted 30 mycologists from some 10African and two European countries. This wasfunded by the African Bioscience Network, theThird World Academy of Sciences and the IMA.The Conference laid the foundation for mycologi-

cal development and as Professor Hawksworthremarked at the opening ceremony '...the wavesfrom this conference will extend far beyond thebeautiful coral reefs of Mauritius'. This visionwas indeed realised within a period of less thanfive years, for three major conferences dealingwith African mycology have since been held, allwith much success. Presentations at theMauritius meeting included both basic andapplied aspects of mycology, including taxonomyand ecology, as well as fermentation techniquesand biocontrol of weeds and insects. It was alsoagreed during this conference that areas ofresearch interests by African scientists should becommunicated to foster collaborative work. Onevery important outcome of RMCI was the publi-cation of the Directory of African Mycology(Hennebert & Buick, 1994).

The Second Regional Mycology Conference(RMC2) was held in Cairo, Egypt on 7-10October 1992 and was attended by about 150mycologists from eight countries. A total ofeighty-three papers were presented during thisconference and included general lectures by D.L.Hawksworth, A.H. Moubassher, P.J. Peterson, A.

Volume 10, Part 1, February 1996

Professor A. Eiker(Vice-President,

Southern Africa Region)

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!2Professor A. Peerally(Past President)

AcknowledgementsI thank Professor A Peerally for providing mewith the details of the history of CODMA andDr Mark Holderness of IMI for reviewing thisarticle. It is through the invaluable support ofProfessor D.L. Hawksworth , both as IMAPresident and Honorary President of CODMA,that AMA was realised much earlier than itcould otherwise have been and we are mostgrateful to him.

Richard K MibeyDepartment of Botany University of Nairobi

p. 0 Box 30197 Nairobi, Kenya

The Fourth Regional Mycological Conference(RMC4) is to be held in Nairobi, Kenya in 1998 andfurther information on this will be available later.Please contact the Secretary for more details onAMA matters.

Professor G.T.Odamtten(Vice-President,Western AfricaRegion)

Richard Kiprono Mibey

A.A. Razak-Northern Africa

Albert Eicker-Southern Africa

George T. Odamtten-Western

Africa

D. Wessels

Anxious Masuka

Abed Peerally

Secretary:

Treasurer:

Past President:

President:

Vice-Presidents:

Peerally, and A. Eicker. At theCODMA business meetingheld during RMC2 a decisionwas taken to create an AfricanMycological Association andProfessor A. Peerally wasappointed as President of theinterim Executive Committee.This Committee was given theresponsibility of producingdraft statutes for the AMA, atask entrusted to ProfessorEicker in consultation withProfessor A.A.Razak.

At the 5th InternationalMycology Conference held inVancouver, Canada on 14-21August 1994, two symposia onAfrican mycology were heldwith participants from variouscountries in Africa and /Europe.

The Third RegionalMycology Conference (RMC3)held in Harare, Zimbabwe on7-10 March 1995 was thelargest meeting thus far andattracted participants fromvarious African countries (withall the three sub-regions rep-resented) , Europe and theUSA. Presentations includedpapers on fungi in ecology andenvironment, taxonomy andbiosystematics, plant patho-genic fungi and biocontrol,fungi in the food industry,medical mycology and mush-rooms.

At the CODMA/AMA business meeting heldduring RMC3 in Harare on 8 March 1995 thedraft statutes of the AMA were tabled. TheCODMA/AMA meeting also decided unanimous-ly to integrate CODMA within AMA so thatthere should be only one regional body in Africato look after the development of mycology. Anew executive committee was elected as follows:-