However, learn more so far as the editor knows, the present volume represents the first time that a single issue of a major journal of mycology has been devoted exclusively to papers on myxomycetes. The ten papers included in the volume consider various aspects of the ecology and distribution of these organisms. Several papers, including those by Wrigley de Basanta et al. (Madagascar), Lado et al. (central Chile) and Kylin et al. (Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia), are the first major studies of myxomycetes carried out in a particular region of the world, whereas the paper by Rollins et al. is the first to report on the assemblages of species associated with different microhabitats

in a grassland ecosystem. Other papers address such diverse subjects as biogeography (Estrada-Torres et al.), the species associated with the rather special and clearly defined microhabitat represented by dung (Eliasson), the impact of a colony of birds on the assemblage of myxomycetes present at the same locality (Adamonyte et al.), the correlation of molecular signatures to morphospecies in myxomycetes (Novozhilov et al.) and the responses of myxomycetes to forest disturbance (Rojas and Stephenson).”
“Introduction

Resinous exudates provide plants with protection against pathogens and parasites, Daporinad but some highly specialized fungi are also known to grow exclusively on resin substrates. In the Mycocaliciales Tibell & Wedin (Eurotiomycetes, Ascomycota) some 10 % of the approximately 150 known species grow on plant exudates (Tibell and Titov 1995; Rikkinen 1999, 2003a;

Titov 2006; Tuovila et al. 2011a, 2011b). Most of these fungi live on conifers and produce perennial, stipitate ascomata on hardened resin and/or resin-impregnated wood. Some species are also able to colonize relatively fresh, semisolid resin. The ability to rapidly Parvulin exploit new substrates is advantageous, but also carries the inherent risk of being buried by subsequent resin flows. This danger is well exemplified, not only by the occurrence of partially or completely submerged ascomata in modern resins, but also by submerged specimens in European amber dating back to the Oligocene (Rikkinen and Poinar 2000) and Eocene (this study). Here, we describe a new resinicolous Chaenothecopsis species from the exudate of Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook. (Cupressaceae) from Hunan Province, China, as well as newly discovered Chaenothecopsis fossils from Eocene Baltic and Oligocene Bitterfeld ambers dating back to at least 35 and 24 Ma ago, respectively. The exquisite preservation of the fossils allows a detailed comparison with extant relatives. One fossil fungus has produced branched and proliferating ascomata similar to those of the newly described species from China, as well as some other extant species of the same lineage.