A New Species of Alboleptonia from Scotland

Abstract

In 1971, an unnamed species of Alboleptonia was first reported from the Island of St. Kilda (Watling and Richardson, 1971). During the summer of 1973, one of us (D.L.L.) collected this species from the grasslands near Newtonmore, Inverness-shire. Since 1973, this agaric has been collected on the Island of Mull (Henderson and Watling, 1978) and, from the observations of one of us (R.W.), it appears to be widespread in rough pastures in north and northwest Scotland. The unnamed species of Alboleptonia is characterized by the lacerate-scaly pileus, the dark reddish brown staining reaction of the entire basidiocarp, the lack of clamp connections, the cylindro-clavate cheilocystidia, and the elliptical (in section), heterodiametric, 5-6-angled basidiospores. This combination of features is not found in any other species of Alboleptonia (Largent and Benedict, 1970; Romagnesi and Gilles, 1979; Horak, 1980; Pegler, 1983). Colors in the following description are taken from Kornerup and Wanscher (1961), with the first number(s) designating the page, the letter(s) designating vertical column(s), and the last number(s) designating the horizontal column. Fifteen measurements each were taken on random samples of spores, cystidia, and basidia. Abbreviations used in the description are as follows: xL = average length; xW = average width; L - D = length minus diam (i.e., width); Q = spore length divided by spore width; and L/W = length divided by width.