First Records Of The Recently Described Ectoparasitic Rickia lenoirii Santam. (Ascomycota: Laboulbeniales) In The Carpathian Basin

Abstract

Rickia lenoirii has been reported in seven localities in the Carpathian Basin, six in Hungary and one in Romania, on Messor structor (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) host specimens. This is the first occurrence of this fungus in two new (Pannonian and Continental) biogeographic regions. According to our findings, the northernmost (47°31'33.01"N) known occurrence of R. lenoirii is Ferenc-hegy (Ferenc Hill) in Budapest. These results demonstrate that ant-parasitic Laboulbeniales fungi may have wider distribution areas than previously expected by mycologists and myrmecologists.

Keywords

• Formicidae
• harvester ant
• Hungary
• Messor structor
• Romania