Abstract
The sequestrate false truffles Elaphomyces favosus, E. iuppitercellus, and E. labyrinthinus spp. nov. are described as new to science from the Dja Biosphere Reserve, Cameroon. Elaphomyces adamizans sp. nov. is described as new from the Pakaraima Mountains of Guyana. The Cameroonian species are the first Elaphomyces taxa to be formally described from Africa, occurring in lowland Guineo-Congolian tropical rainforests dominated by the ectomycorrhizal (ECM) canopy tree Gilbertiodendron dewevrei (Fabaceae subfam. Caesalpinioideae). The Guyanese species is the third to be discovered in lowland tropical South America, occurring in forests dominated by the ECM trees Pakaraimaea dipterocarpacea (Dipterocarpaceae) and Dicymbe jenmanii (Fabaceae subfam. Caesalpinioideae). Macromorphological, micromorphological, habitat, and DNA sequence data are provided for each new species. Molecular and morphological data place these fungi in Elaphomycetaceae (Eurotiales, Ascomycota). Unique morphological features are congruent with molecular delimitation of each of the new species based on a phylogenetic analysis of the rDNA ITS and 28S loci across the Elaphomycetaceae. The phylogenetic analysis also suggests that a common ancestor is shared between some Elaphomyces species from Africa and South America, and that species of the stalked, volvate genus Pseudotulostoma may be nested in Elaphomyces.
Highlights
Elaphomyces Nees 1820 (Elaphomycetaceae, Eurotiales, Ascomycota) is a seTuestrate, ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal genus that associates with a broad range of primarily north or south temperate angiosperm and gymnosperm hosts (Trappe et al 2009, Castellano et al 2011, Quandt et al 2015)
The Cameroonian species are the ¿rst to be formally described from Africa, Elaphomyces partial ITS root tip seTuences have been reported from the African tropics (e.g. Tedersoo et al 2010, 2011) and as yet undescribed Elaphomyces ascomata have been collected in Madagascar (Bart Buyck, pers. comm.)
At maturity this fungus exhibits a powdery ascospore and pseudocapillitium mass exposed on the apex of a woody stalk, having expanded upward through the peridium, which remains as a volva-like basal structure (Fig. 7)
Summary
Elaphomyces Nees 1820 (Elaphomycetaceae, Eurotiales, Ascomycota) is a seTuestrate, ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal genus that associates with a broad range of primarily north or south temperate angiosperm and gymnosperm hosts (Trappe et al 2009, Castellano et al 2011, Quandt et al 2015). Unpublished and currently undescribed Elaphomyces collections have been reported from Costa Rica, Java, Papua New Guinea, and Thailand Castellano et al (2012) provided the ¿rst report of Elaphomyces from the lowland South American tropics, describing two new species associated with ECM Fabaceae hosts in Guyana. Our continued collecting efforts in the tropics of Africa and South America have uncovered four additional new Elaphomyces species. The Cameroonian species are the ¿rst to be formally described from Africa, Elaphomyces partial ITS root tip seTuences have been reported from the African tropics (e.g. Tedersoo et al 2010, 2011) and as yet undescribed Elaphomyces ascomata have been collected in Madagascar The Cameroonian species are currently only known from primary GuineoCongolian tropical rainforests dominated by the ECM canopy tree Gilbertiodendron dewevrei The Guyanese species occurs in primary forests co-dominated by the ECM trees
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