NAME Reduviasporonites
AGE    AGE span:  mya
K&J CLASSIFICATION (2000) Fungi imperfecti, Phragmosporae.
FIGURE(S)
FIGURE REFERENCE
SPECIES, AUTHORITY Reduviasporonites Wilson 1962, p. 91.
LOCATION
ORIG DESCRIPTION* ORIGINAL DIAGNOSIS: Conidia-like spores occurring in uniseriate chains (phragmospores?) of several or more individuals; subspherical, slightly flattened at the contacts with adjacent spores, all approximately same diameter, walls 1-2 µm thick, uniform, smooth or slightly rough, yellow or brown, translucent.
COMMENTS* The fossils differ from Penicillites curtipes Berkeley, 1848 (Eocene), as illustrated in Hirmer (1927, p. 116), in having spores of subspherical rather than elliptical shape and walls that are relatively thinner than those in Penicillites. Reduviasporonites differs from Cercosporites sp. Salmon 1903 (Miocene) in having uniformity of spore size and chains that are straighter and always uniseriate. The spores of Reduviasporonites are translucent, whereas those of Cercosporites are described by Salmon as opaque. The relating of Salmon's fossils to the modern genus Cercospora Fresenius seems a poor choice, for the conidiospores of Cercospora are filiform, acicular, obclavate, or clavate in shape (Chupp, 1953), whereas those of Cercosporites are globular. Another fossil fungus with which Reduviasporonites should be compared is the Eocene Torulites moniliformis Menge (Caspary, 1906-07). This form is illustrated as having spores that are progressively smaller toward the apex (Hirmer, p. 124). The shape of the spores and mycelium of Torulites compares more closely to the modern genus Hormiscum Kunze ex Wallr. than with Torula Persoon ex Fr.

The first part of the generic name Reduviasporonites has been derived from the Latin reduvia (fragment), and the root and suffix -sporonites indicates that the specimens are fossil fungus spores not organically attached to other structures. Sporonites is used in preference to -sporites to indicate that the spore is of fungal affinity.
PUBLICATION REFERENCE Wilson LR. 1962. A Permian fungus spore type from the Flowerpot Formation of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Geology Notes, v. 22, p. 91-96.
K&J REMARKS Reduviasporonites is a genus of rather large-celled, catenate, round spores. Elsik (1992, 1999) did not illustrate material evidence (e.g. additional specimens from the Flowerpot Formation of Oklahoma) in support of his contention that Reduviasporonites is the senior synonym and correct name for the large-celled enigmatic Permian-Triassic palynomorphs described as Chordecystia and Tympanicysta. [The last two genera were included in the Genera File of Fossil Spores (Jansonius & Hills, 1976), although their botanical affinity is uncertain.] Elsik (1999) and Wood & Elsik (1999) illustrated the breadth of variety in the morphology, and stratigraphic occurrence, of these last fossils. Kalgutkar and Jansonius (2000) wonder if these might be animal (coelenterate polyps?), rather than plant or fungal remains.
TYPE TYPE: Reduviasporonites catenulatus Wilson 1962, p. 91, pl. 1, figs. 1, 4.
ALL NAMES (Including synonyms) Reduviasporonites;
SERIAL NUMBER 1513
PUBLIC COMMENTS
 *For source, see Publication Reference.