Diagnostic Corner

PHYLOGENESIS AND TAXONOMIC STRUCTURE OF THE ENTOMOPHTHORACEAE
Andrzej Batko

This large file (3.7 MB) is 58 page Acrobat (PDF) English translation of an extended 1974 commentary on and justification by Andrzej Batko of his watershed classification for the Entomophthorales published in the mid-1960's. This illustrated manuscript includes some concepts and ideas that will be dismissed out of hand by some now that we have some initial molecular evidence about phylogenetic events in the Entomophthorales but there are many other challenging concepts that merit our attention and consideration. The original publication, in Polish, has been little known or cited because of the language in which it appeared and because of the scant circulation of the book in which it appeared. This English translation, originally prepared in Pakistan in 1977 as USDA Technical Translation 77-54076, has been editted to improve the English and readability without distorting the meaning of the original text; grateful thanks are due to S. Ignatowicz and the late T. Poprawski for their assistance in this editting. It's a long download but I hope you will agree that this is a document worth the time you spend with it!

Here is a 24-page handout prepared for R.A. Humber's part of a workshop taught with Donald Steinkraus (University of Arkansas) on the identification of entomopathogenic fungi at the 1998 joint meeting of the American Phytopathological Society and Entomological Society of America. This document includes the key from Humber's chapter on fungal identification in Manual of Techniques in Insect Pathology in Insect Pathology (1997, L. A. Lacey, Editor; now out of print) and provides a unique new twist on identification and emphasizes the order in which diagnostic characters need to be considered when identifying major species in the most important general of fungal entomopathogens.

Humber, R.A. 1981. An alternative view of certain taxonomic criteria used in the Entomophthorales (Zygomycetes). Mycotaxon 13: 191-240.

Humber, R.A. 1989. Synopsis of a revised classification for the Entomophthorales (Zygomycotina). Mycotaxon 34: 441-460.

With the aid of their author, permission has been received from the publisher to post electronic copies here of two significant books in Russian by Eleonora Z. Koval' on the floristics of insect fungi in the Soviet Union:

1974. Opredelitel' entomofil'nikh gribov SSSR. Kiev: Naukova Dumka. 260 pp.
[Determination of entomophilic fungi of the USSR]

1984. Klavitsipital'ni'e gribi SSSR. Kiev: Naukova Dumka. 288 pp.
[Clavicipitaceous fungi of the USSR]

As with the Batko (1974) manuscript now made available to you, these two books have remained largely unknown and inaccessible to most of the world. They contain much significant information about the occurrence and distribution of a vast range and diversity of fungi associated with insects. The book on the Clavicipitaceae is particularly important because it substantially confirms the presence of a very rich and diverse flora of Cordyceps species in southeastern Russia, adjacent to Japan, and Korea where the extraordinarily high biodiversity of this genus has already well known and documented.

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