In: Sydowia 78, (2025): 39-55; ISSN 0082-0598, DOI 10.12905/0380.sydowia78-2026-0039, Published online on May 15th, 2025

Checklist of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomeromycota) from Venezuela (South America)

Gisela Cuenca* & Milagros Lovera

Centro de Ecología, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), Caracas 20632, Venezuela.
* e-mail:gache1109@gmail.com

Cuenca G. & Lovera M. (2025) Checklist of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomeromycota) from Venezuela (South America). – Sydowia 78: 39–55.

The objective of this work is to present the checklist of Glomeromycota species that have been collected so far in Venezuela.
A total of 117 AMF species are listed, and the sources from which these reports emerge since the beginning of taxonomic work in the country - at the end of the 1980s - until the present.
The species are distributed in 23 genera, 9 families and 5 orders. Fortyfour percent of the Gigasporaceae species (44.3 %), described on a global scale, are present in Venezuela being the best-represented family, followed by Acaulosporaceae and Glomeraceae with a representation of 43.3 % and 24.8 % respectively.
Glomeraceae was the most abundant family in the different habitats evaluated while Gigasporaceae was especially abundant in savannas, humid forests and shrublands. In particular, an important number of endemic species of Gigasporaceae are restricted to La Gran Sabana region in the Guayana Shield and a hypothesis is proposed to explain this fact.

Keywords: biodiversity, distribution, Glomeromycotina, species richness, taxonomy.