''Didymium wildpretii'' is a species of

slime mold Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to a polyphyletic assemblage of unrelated eukaryotic organisms in the Stramenopiles, Rhizaria, Discoba, Amoebozoa and Holomycota clades. Most are near-microscopic; those in the Myxogastria ...

which feeds on the decaying remains of various species of

cacti A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, ...

. It was first described in 2007 and has been found across

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

, but may be present where other cacti grow. Its sporocarps are short (0.1–0.7 mm tall); their sporotheca is pale yellow with an orange stalk and their

spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual reproduction, sexual (in fungi) or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for biological dispersal, dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores fo ...

s have a diameter of 7.5 μm. When grown on agar, it completes its life cycle in 28–56 days. It grows on

basic Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...

media with a pH of 7.8–10.0, with optimum growth occurring at 8.5–9.4. The species was named after Wolfredo Wildpret de la Torre, an expert in the

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

of the Canary Islands.

Hosts

''Didymium wildpretii'' is known to grow on species of the globose cacti ''

Echinocactus platyacanthus ''Echinocactus platyacanthus'' is a member of the cactus family Cactaceae. It is also known as the giant barrel cactus, golden barrel cactus, giant viznaga, or biznaga de dulce, and its Nahuatl (Aztec) name is ''huitzli nahual''.. It is native to ...

'', '' Mammillaria carnea'' and '' Ferocactus latispinus''; the opuntioid cacti '' Opuntia depressa'', '' O. maxima'', '' O. pilifera'' and '' O. tomentosa'') and the columnar cacti ('' Myrtillocactus geometrizans'', '' Pachycereus hollianus'', '' P. weberi'', ''

Stenocereus ''Stenocereus'' () is a genus of columnar or tree-like cactus, cacti from the Baja California Peninsula and other parts of Mexico, Arizona in the United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Venezuela and the West Indies. The genus has been en ...

'' and '' Neobuxbaumia''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5274265 Myxogastria Myxogastria species Protists described in 2007