Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Laboratory Maintenance of the Lower Dipteran Fly Bradysia (Sciara) coprophila: A New/Old Emerging Model Organism
Published on: April 19, 2024
Typification of Smittium, an important genus in the taxonomy of Harpellales
Robert W Lichtwardt1, Merlin M White
1Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7534, USA. licht@ku.edu
Abstract:
The Harpellales genus Smittium is based on a type species, S. arvernense, which was described by Poisson in 1937 without designation of a type specimen. Smittium arvernense has not been reported since its original publication. Because the other 79 species of Smittium cannot be compared to the type species, a lectotype is proposed as well as an epitype for that lectotype that is also the holotype of S. mucronatum. Because Smittium is believed to be polyphyletic these type designations will provide stable application of names and, as well resolved phylogenetic analyses of member species emerge based on morphological and DNA sequence characters, they will provide a foundation for a more robust and revised classification.
Related Concept Videos
Phylogenetic Species Concept in Microbiology
Taxonomy
Diversity of Protists III
Microbial Classification System
Bacterial Phylum Planctomycetes
Anoxygenic Phototrophic Bacteria

