Stemonitis

{{Short description|Genus of slime moulds}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|Cenomanian|Present}}

| image = Stemonitis fusca.jpg

| image_caption = Stemonitis fusca or similar species in the White Mountain National Forest

| taxon = Stemonitis

| authority = Gled. {{cite web |url=http://www.speciesfungorum.org/names/genusrecord.asp?RecordID=12235 |title=Genus Record Details: Stemonitis Gled., Method. Fung.: 140 (1753) |work=Species Fungorum |publisher=CAB International |accessdate=April 12, 2012}}

| type_species = Stemonitis fusca

| type_species_authority = Roth in Roemer & Usteri (1787) 

}}

Stemonitis is a distinctive genus of slime moulds found throughout the world (except Antarctica). They are characterised by the tall brown sporangia, supported on slender stalks, which grow in clusters on rotting wood.{{Cite web |url=http://www.messiah.edu/Oakes/fungi_on_wood/club%20and%20coral/species%20pages/Stemonitis.htm |title=Stemonitis sp. |year=2008 |author=Gary Emberger |accessdate=April 13, 2012 |publisher=Messiah College}} The genus was first described by German botanist Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch in 1753. A 2014 estimate suggests that there are 18 species in the genus. Identification within the genus is difficult, and can only be performed with confidence using a microscope or by DNA sequencing. A fossil specimen (in Burmese amber) is known from the mid-Cretaceous (99 ma).{{Cite journal|last1=Rikkinen|first1=Jouko|last2=Grimaldi|first2=David A.|last3=Schmidt|first3=Alexander R.|date=December 2019|title=Morphological stasis in the first myxomycete from the Mesozoic, and the likely role of cryptobiosis|journal=Scientific Reports|volume=9|issue=1|page=19730|doi=10.1038/s41598-019-55622-9|pmid=31874965|pmc=6930221|bibcode=2019NatSR...919730R|issn=2045-2322|doi-access=free}}