Two new species of Lactifluus (Fungi, Russulales) from tropical Quercus forest in eastern Mexico.

Leticia Montoya,Victor M Bandala,Antero Ramos,Abraham Caro

doi:10.3897/mycokeys.59.38359

Abstract

Two new species of Lactifluus subgenus Lactifluus were discovered during a three-year monitoring of the ectomycorrhizal fungi in a tropical oak forest from central Veracruz, Mexico. Systematic sampling of basidiomes allowed recording of the morphological variation of fruit-bodies in different growth stages along with their fructification season. Both new species were distinguished, based on macro- and micromorphological features and on molecular data. A phylogenetic analysis of a concatenated nuc rDNA ITS, D1 and D2 domains of nuc 28S rDNA (LSU) and the 6–7 region of the second largest subunit of the RNA polymerase II (rpb2) sequence dataset of species of Lactifluus is provided. In the phylogeny inferred, one of the new species is sister to L. dissitus Van de Putte, K. Das & Verbeken and the other belongs to the group of species of L. piperatus (L.) Kuntze, sister to an unidentified species from U.S.A. The studied taxa grow under Quercus oleoides in the study site. The species are presented and illustrated here.

Highlights

Mexico is one of the worldwide centres for oak (Quercus) diversity
The dataset built included a total of 54 sequences and Auriscalpium vulgare, Bondarzewia montana and Stereum hirsutum as the outgroups
In the phylogenetic trees, inferred using both Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian Inference (BI), terminal clades were concordant amongst topologies and internal nodes that had significant Bootstrap Standard (BS) score (≥ 70%), BI (≥ 0.90), Ultrafast Approach Bootstrap (UFBoot)

Summary

Introduction

Mexico is one of the worldwide centres for oak (Quercus) diversity. It hosts around 174 species, over 60% of which are endemic (Valencia 2004, Oldfield and Eastwood 2007, Villaseñor 2016). Some lowland tropical areas from central Veracruz (eastern Mexico) harbour oak forest patches, part of them being considered Pleistocene relicts and formally recognised amongst “main land regions” of the country (“Región Terrestre Prioritaria 104”) (Arriaga et al 2000). Leticia Montoya et al / MycoKeys 59: 27–45 (2019)

Methods

Results

Conclusion