Cortinarius subgenus Leprocybe (Agaricales) in New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Cortinarius is the largest genus of Agaricales (mushrooms) in the world with a cosmopolitan distribution. All species are ectomycorrhizal. Cortinariaceae is a very diverse fungal family, recently split into ten genera, one of which is Cortinarius. The former genus Cortinarius s. lato, in its turn, was traditionally divided into 4–7 subgenera, of which one of the later additions is the subgenus Leprocybe. Here we review the diversity of Leprocybe in the Southern Hemisphere. Using a 4-locus molecular phylogeny, it is shown that all but one of M. Moser’s original sections are represented in the South Pacific region, many of them in New Zealand. Several species sharing a morphology that may be designated ‘leprocyboid’ are found in the country. These are discussed, their taxonomy is analysed, and a key is provided. Three new species (Aureonarius ruficollybianus, Cortinarius stenophryx, and Cystinarius pseudoeutactus) are proposed. The leprocyboid Cortinarius sect. Incensi, present in New Zealand, appears not to nest in any of the studied genera, but an analysis with more genes and a wider taxon sampling is required to clarify its position within the phylogeny of the family.

KEYWORDS:

• Bihemispherical
• Aureonarius
• Cystinarius
• taxonomy
• South Pacific
• 3 new species

Acknowledgements

We thank Irja Saar for performing the sequencing of part of our material. Noah Siegal is thanked for providing collections, photographs and field notes for some of the material.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The alignment and tree are deposited as Supplemental Files 1 and 2. New sequences are deposited in GenBank (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) or in Unite (https://unite.ut.ee) as specified in Table 1.

Additional information

Funding

Jerry Cooper is supported through the Manaaki Whenua Biota Portfolio, with funding from the Science and Innovation Group of the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Andy Nilsen and David Orlovich are supported by the Marsden Fund Council from Government funding (contract UOO1909), managed by Royal Society Te Apārangiwere.