October 14, 2021: The tropical Andes are likely the richest of the world’s tropical regions when referring to Myxomycetes. Despite being a biodiversity hotspot for these amoeboid protists, it has been widely underexplored so far. To tackle this situation, we have conducted studies on the myxobiota of highlands of the Peruvian Andes. Part of these studies, recently published in Phytotaxa, have revealed the occurrence of three unusual species of the order Trichiales, at altitudes as high as 5000 m. Two of them have been reported for the first time from the Southern Hemisphere, enlarging their known geographical distribution, and their ecological data. These results not only highlight the potential of tropical Andes as a suitable habitat for rare myxomycetes, but also emphasize the value of exploratory studies to get to know the real biodiversity in neglected regions.

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