ABSTRACT
The fungal kingdom comprises molds, mushrooms, lichens, rusts, smuts, and yeasts with remarkably diverse life histories and contributes to biosphere functioning, industrial products, and medicinally valued metabolites (Stajich et al. 2009). Although a relatively tiny fraction of freshwaters are available compared to salt waters, there are a wide distribution of freshwater fungi in a variety of biomes consisting of approximately 600 species involved mainly in detritus decomposition (Wong et al. 1998; Shearer et al. 2007). Aquatic hyphomycetes also popularly called “Ingoldian fungi” are polyphyletic mitosporic fungi, which are dominant in decomposing leaf litter in streams worldwide. Relevance of aquatic hyphomycetes was realized only after Ingold (1942) observed and documented 16 conidial forms from decaying leaf litter in a tiny stream in England. They are well characterized by conidial architecture, especially scolecoid (sigmoid) and stauroid (multiradiate) shapes designed for ©oatation in water, anchor on substrates, and accumulation in foam (Ingold 1975a; Marvanová 1997; Gulis et al. 2005) (Figure 15.1). Until their signi›cance (plant-litter decomposition and energy transfer) was precisely projected by early researchers (e.g., Kaushik and Hynes 1971; Bärlocher and Kendrick 1974; Suberkropp and Klug 1976),
aquatic hyphomycetes were obscure and neglected mycota by mycologists as well as limnologists.
