Research Article |
Corresponding author: Shu-Hong Li ( shuhongfungi@126.com ) Corresponding author: Olivier Raspé ( Olivier.Ras@mfu.ac.th ) Academic editor: Rui-Lin Zhao
© 2023 Song-Ming Tang, Santhiti Vadthanarat, Jun He, Bhavesh Raghoonundon, Feng-Ming Yu, Samantha C. Karunarathna, Shu-Hong Li, Olivier Raspé.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Tang S-M, Vadthanarat S, He J, Raghoonundon B, Yu F-M, Karunarathna SC, Li S-H, Raspé O (2023) Morphological and molecular analyses reveal two new species of Termitomyces (Agaricales, Lyophyllaceae) and morphological variability of T. intermedius. MycoKeys 95: 61-82. https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.95.97156
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Two new species, Termitomyces tigrinus and T. yunnanensis are described based on specimens collected from southwestern China. Termitomyces yunnanensis is morphologically characterized by a conspicuously venose pileus surface that is grey, olive grey, light grey to greenish grey at center, light grey towards margin, and a cylindrical white stipe. Termitomyces tigrinus is morphologically characterized by a densely tomentose to tomentose-squamulose pileus showing alternating greyish white and dark grey zones, and a stipe that is bulbous at the base. The two new species are supported by phylogenetic analyses of combined nuclear rDNA internal transcribed spacer ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA (ITS), the mitochondrial rDNA small subunit (mrSSU) and the nuclear rDNA large subunit (nrLSU). The morphological variability of T. intermedius, including five specimens newly collected from Yunnan Province, China, is also discussed. The collections showed variability in colour of the stipe surface and in the shape of cheilocystidia when compared to the original description. Full descriptions of the two new species and of T. intermedius, as well as a taxonomic key to the 14 Termitomyces species reported from China are provided.
2 new species, morphology, multi-gene phylogeny, taxonomy, tropical Asia, Yunnan
Termitomyces R.
Termitomyces species were formerly placed in several different genera, including Agaricus (
Termitomyces species are ecmically important and widely traded as food in the markets of tropical and subtropical areas (
Recently, molecular phylogenetic approaches have increasingly been applied to investigate phylogenetic relationships among genera and species of Agaricales (
For the past 70 years, a number of new Termitomyces species have been described based only on morphological characteristics. The lack of good illustrations and/or of detailed descriptions made the taxonomy of Termitomyces complicated, until the advent of molecular phylogeny.
During investigations of Termitomyces across southwestern China and Thailand, several Termitomyces collections were made. Amongst them, two Termitomyces species from Yunnan, China, are newly described herein. In addition to the morphological descriptions and illustrations, molecular phylogenetic analyses based on the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2, mrSSU and nrLSU supported the two new species.
Eleven specimens were collected from Southwestern China. Collection locations were subtropical broad-leaved forests in Yunnan Province, where the annual average temperature is 12–22 °C, and the elevation is 1,000–3,500 m (
Descriptions of macro-morphological characteristics and habitats were obtained from the photographs and notes. Colour codes were based on
Genomic DNA was extracted from dry specimens using Ezup Column Fungi Genomic DNA extraction Kit following the manufacturer’s protocol. PCR amplification, PCR product purification, and sequencing. The primers used for nrLSU amplification were LR0R and LR5 (
A total of 29 newly generated sequences and 66 sequences from GenBank were used as ingroup and twelve sequences of Lyophyllum shimeji (Kawam.) Hongo, L. decastes (Fr.) Singer, Asterophora lycoperdoides (Bull.) Ditmar, and A. parasitica (Bull.) Singer retrieved from GenBank were used as outgroup (see Table
Names, specimen vouchers, origin, and corresponding GenBank accession numbers of the sequences used in this study. New species are shaded in gray and newly generated sequences are in bold; “*” following a species name indicates that the specimen is the type of that species and “N/A” refers to the unavailability of data.
Taxon | Voucher specimen | Origin | GenBank accession no. | Reference | ||
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ITS | mrSSU | nrLSU | ||||
Termitomyces acriumbonatus | LAH36362 | Pakistan | MT179687 | N/A | MT179690 | Usman et al. (2020) |
T. acriumbonatus* | LAH35345 | Pakistan | MT179688 | N/A | MT179689 | Usman et al. (2020) |
T. aurantiacus | DM 152E | Cameroon | N/A | KY809186 | KY809234 |
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T. aurantiacus | tgf 82 | Tanzania | N/A | AY127852 | AY127804 |
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T. brunneopileatus * | DM392 | Cameroon | N/A | KY809225 | KY809273 |
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T. brunneopileatus | DM394 | Cameroon | N/A | KY809197 | KY809244 |
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T. bulborhizus | KM128338 | China | N/A | KY809213 | KY809261 |
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T. floccosus * |
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Thailand | MT683161 | MN701029 | MN633305 |
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T. fragilis * | HKAS 88912 | China | KY214475 | N/A | N/A |
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T. fragilis | HKAS 88909 | China | KY214476 | N/A | N/A |
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T. gilvus * | BORH/FUMS-A03 | Malaysia | N/A | MK478904 | MK472701 |
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T. globulus | DM770 | Cameroon | N/A | KY809204 | KY809252 |
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T. heimii | Muid.sn | N/A | N/A | AF357091 | AF042586 | Moncalvo et al. (2000) |
T. intermedius | YO198 | Japan | AB968241 | N/A | N/A |
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T. intermedius | HKAS 117638 | China | ON557369 | ON557367 | ON556484 | This study |
T. intermedius | HKAS 117639 | China | ON557370 | ON557368 | ON556485 | This study |
T. le-testui | DM150G | Cameroon | N/A | KY809184 | KY809231 |
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T. le-testui | KM128346 | China | N/A | KY809215 | KY809263 |
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T. mammiformis | DM25E | Cameroon | N/A | KY809182 | KY809229 |
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T. mammiformis | DM25G | Cameroon | N/A | KY809183 | KY809230 |
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T. mboudaeinus | DM223E | Cameroon | N/A | KY809189 | KY809237 |
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T. medius f. ochraceus | DM602B | Cameroon | N/A | KY809198 | KY809246 |
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T. radicatus | MRNo173 | Thailand | LC068787 | N/A | N/A |
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T. robustus | KM142418 | Tanzania | N/A | KY809217 | KY809265 |
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T. robustus | DM436 | Cameroon | N/A | KY809223 | KY809271 |
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T. sagittiformis | KM109566 | South Africa | N/A | KY809212 | KY809260 |
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T. schimperi | DM24E | Cameroon | N/A | KY809181 | KY809228 |
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T. sheikhupurensis * | SKP124 | Pakistan | MT192217 | N/A | MT192228 |
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T. sheikhupurensis | SKP224 | Pakistan | MT192218 | N/A | N/A |
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T. singidensis | tgf74 | Tanzania | N/A | AY232687 | AY232713 |
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T. striatus | KM142436 | Malawi | N/A | KY809219 | KY809267 |
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T. striatus | BR5020212704478V | Mali | OP179298 | OP179292 | OP168082 | This study |
T. striatus | BR5020168468769 | Rwanda | OP179297 | OP179294 | OP168081 | This study |
T. striatus | BR5020169404421 | Congo | OP179299 | OP179293 | OP168080 | This study |
T. striatus f. bibasidiatus * | DM280B | Cameroon | N/A | KY809193 | KY809241 |
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T. striatus f. subclypeatus * | DM370B | Cameroon | N/A | KY809220 | KY809268 |
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T. striatus f. subclypeatus | DM151C | Cameroon | N/A | KY809194 | KY809242 |
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T. subumkowaan | DM260F | Cameroon | N/A | KY809190 | KY809239 |
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T. subumkowaan * | DM260B | Cameroon | N/A | KY809227 | KY809275 |
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T. tigrinus * | HKAS 107560 | China | MT683156 | MT683152 | MT679729 | This study |
T. tigrinus | HKAS 107561 | China | MT683157 | MT683153 | MT679730 | This study |
T. umkowaan | HUH-SH5 | Pakistan | KJ703245 | N/A | N/A | Hussai et al. 2015 |
T. upsilocystidiatus T |
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China | MT683160 | MN636642 | MN636637 |
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T. yunnanensis * | HKAS 124501 | China | OP179295 | OP179290 | OP168083 | This study |
T. yunnanensis | HKAS 124502 | China | OP179296 | OP179291 | OP168084 | This study |
Outgroup | ||||||
Lyophyllum shimeji | Lc42 | N/A | AF357060 | AF357137 | AF357078 |
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L. decastes | JM87/16 | N/A | AF357059 | AF357136 | AF042583 |
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Asterophora lycoperdoides | CBS170.86 | N/A | AF357037 | AF357109 | AF223190 |
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A. parasitica | CBS683.82 | N/A | AF357038 | AF357110 | AF223191 |
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Phylogenies and node support were first inferred by Maximum Likelihood (ML) from the three single-gene alignments separately, using RAxML-HPC2 version 8.2.12 (
The alignments of the nrLSU, mrSSU, 5.8S and ITS1+ITS2 sequences were 538, 354, 157, and 464 characters long after trimming, respectively. The combined data set had an aligned length of 1,516 characters, of which 946 characters were constant, 570 were variable but parsimony-uninformative, and 400 were parsimony-informative.
ML and BI analyses generated nearly identical tree topologies with little variation in statistical support. Thus, only the ML tree is displayed (Fig.
Strict consensus tree illustrating the phylogeny based on the combined nrLSU, mrSSU, 5.8S and ITS1+ITS2 data set. Maximum likelihood bootstrap proportions equal to or higher than 70%, and Bayesian posterior probabilities equal to or higher than 0.90 are indicated at nodes. The two Asterophora species and two Lyophyllum species were used as the outgroup. The two newly described species are in red. Holotype specimens are in bold.
Basidiomata medium-sized. Pileus 4–11 cm in diam., broadly conical or convex when seen from aside, dark grey (1F1), unchanging, often rimose-squamulose in dry condition, squamules easily falling away; margin deflexed to inflexed, undate; perforatorium small and mucronate, dark grey (1F1); context white (1A1), 2–3 mm thick half-way to the margin, tough. Lamellae subventricose, 5–7 mm wide, subfree, crowded, white (1A1) when young, becoming to yellowish white (1A2) when mature; lamellulae in 1–2 tiers; lamellar edge eroded. Stipe central, 3–13 × 1.2–1.6 cm, cylindrical, sometime subbulbous (1.9–2.3 cm) at the base, pale grey (1B1) usually rimose in dry condition, smooth, sometimes irregularly pustulate bumps on the surface; context solid, white, fibrous. Annulus absent. Pseudorhiza terete, tapering downwards; surface pale grey (1B1), smooth; context solid, fibrous. Odour pleasant. Taste not distinctive.
Basidia 43–68 × 10–20 μm, av. 50 ± 8.3 × 14 ± 2.5 μm, clavate, thin-walled, 1-spored or 2-spored, (4-spored basidia not seen); sterigmata 1–2 μm long. Basidiospores [67/9/3] (9.0–) 10.3–14.1 (–14.9) × (5.3–) 5.8–8.9 (–10.2) μm, Lm × Wm = 11.9 ± 1.1 × 7.3 ± 0.9 μm, Q = 1.4–1.8 (–2.0), Qm = 1.60 ± 0.18, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid, colorless, thin-walled, smooth. Hymenophoral trama regular, parallel, 150–230 μm wide, made up of thin-walled, fusiform to narrowly cylindrical hyphae elements 10–23 μm wide, filamentous hyphae abundant, 4–6 μm wide. Subhymenium 8–15 μm thick, with 1–2 layers of ovoid, subglobose, fusiform, ellipsoid or irregular cells, 5–7 × 3–5 μm. Pleurocystidia 40–136 (–169) × 19–34 μm, av. 95 ± 34.1 × 24 ± 9.9 μm, oblong, obovoid or ellipsoid, thin-walled. Lamellar edge heteromorphous, with abundant cheilocystidia. Cheilocystidia 52–114 × 20–29 μm, av. 78 ± 23.3 × 29 ± 8.4 μm, clavate to pyriform, narrowly lageniform, lageniform or broadly lageniform, thin-walled. Pileipellis 2-layered; suprapellis an ixocutis composed of cylindrical hyphae with obtuse apex, thin-walled, hyaline at places in KOH and terminal elements 16–73 × 3–6 μm, av. 46 ± 17.3 × 5 ± 0.9 μm; subpellis made up of inflated elements, 52–131 × 20–27 μm, av. 95 ± 24.8 × 24 ± 8.4 μm. Clamp connections not seen in any tissue.
Basidiomata scattered to gregarious around termite underground nests; occurring in summer. Known from China and Japan.
China. Yunnan Provinces: Kunming city, Shilin county, altitude 1,750 m, 12 July 2019, S.M. Tang 2019071204 (HKAS 117639); Baoshan city, Kejie village, altitude 1,680 m, 3 August 2019, Song-Ming Tang 2019080315 (HKAS 117640); Kejie village, altitude 1,599 m, 3 August 2020, Feng-Ming Yu 2019080321 (HKAS 117641); Dali city, altitude 1,890 m, 21 July 2020, Jun He 202072101 (HKAS 117643); Yuxi city, 1,708 m, 24 July 2020, Jun He 2020072422 (HKAS 117644).
Termitomyces intermedius was originally described from Japan (
The epithet “tigrinus” refers to the alternating greyish white and dark grey zones on the pileus.
Holotype. China. Yunnan Province: Chuxiong County, Fuming, elev. 1,800 m, 16 July 2019, Song-Ming Tang (Holotype: HKAS 107560, isotype:
Differs from other Termitomyces species in having a regular alternating greyish white and dark grey zones on the pileus, and subclavate stipe.
Basidiomata medium-sized. Pileus 7–9 cm in diam., convex to plano-convex, circular when seen from above, dark grey (1F1–2) at the centre, greyish white (1B1) to grey (1C1–1D1) towards margin, with regular alternating dark grey and greyish white zones, densely tomentose to tomentose-squamulose, hairs grey to drab, in dry conditions, often cracked into large or small scales; margin exceeding lamellae, undate; perforatorium small, as an acute papilla, dark grey (1C1). context 1–2 mm thick half-way to the margin, tough, white (1A1). Lamellae close, ventricose, 3–5 mm wide, adnexed, crowded, white (1A1) at first, then cream to greyish pink when mature; lamellar edge eroded; lamellulae in 1–2 tiers. Stipe 5–7 × 1–3.5 cm, central, subclavate, white (1A1) at the apex, greyish white (1B1) to grey (1C1–1D1) toward the base, smooth; context white (1A1), solid, fibrous. Annulus absent. Pseudorhiza terete, strongly tapering; surface grey (1D1–2) to dark grey (1F1–1F2), smooth; context solid, fibrous. Odour slightly fragrant. Taste not distinctive.
Basidia of two types conspicuously different by the apex of sterigmata being either acute or obtuse, first type rather abundant, clavate, sterigmata apex acute, mostly 4–spored sometimes 1–spored or 2–spored, 25–32 × 7–12 μm, av. 28 ± 2.4 × 11 ± 0.5 μm, sterigmata 1–3 μm long; the second type fewer in number, clavate, sterigmata apex obtuse, mostly 1–spored, 2–spored, sometimes 4–spored, 24–30 × 9–13 μm, av. 26 ± 2.2 × 12 ± 0.7 μm, sterigmata 2–4 μm long. Basidiospores [90/5/2] (6.1–) 7.2–9.6 (–10.1) × (3.3–) 5.2–7.3 (–7.9) μm, Lm × Wm = 8.1 ± 1.1 × 6.3 ± 0.8 μm, Q = (1.01–) 1.20–2.03 (–2.30), Qm = 1.53 ± 0.20, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid, colourless, thin-walled, smooth. Hymenophoral trama regular, element parallel, 51–100 μm wide, made up of thin-walled, ellipsoid to clavate inflated hyphae 16–18 μm wide, filamentous hyphae abundant, 5–10 μm wide. Subhymenium 8–21 μm thick, with 1–2 layers of ovoid, subglobose, fusiform, ellipsoid or irregular cells, 8–11 × 3–6 μm. Pleurocystidia absent. Lamellar edge composed mostly of undifferentiated, basidiole-like cells. Cheilocystidia few, broadly clavate, 17–36 × 9–16 μm, av. 28 ± 2.0 × 14 ± 0.6 μm. Pileipellis 2-layered, suprapellis an ixocutis 22–51 × 5–7 μm av. 30 ± 5.7 × 6 ± 0.5 μm, cylindrical hyphae with obtuse apex, thin-walled, hyaline in KOH; subpellis made up of inflated elements, 31–81 × 7–14 μm, av. 58 ± 7.6 × 10 ± 0.8 μm. Clamp connections not seen in any tissues.
Basidiomata scattered on soil with decaying litter under which termites have built their nest. Occurring in summer. So far only known from southwestern China.
China. Yunnan Province, Chuxiong city, 20 July 2019, Jun He (HKAS 107561).
Termitomyces tigrinus is distinguished from other Termitomyces by densely tomentose to tomentose-squamulose pileus with regularly alternating greyish white and dark grey zones, and a small, dark grey perforatorium as an acute papilla, two conspicuously different types of basidia, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid basidiospores, clavate, thin-walled cheilocystidia that are rare (HKAS 107560), or absent (in HKAS 107561).
Morphologically, T. tigrinus is similar to T. robustus (Beeli) R. Heim in having grey to black stipe. However, T. robustus has a blunt perforatorium (
Termitomyces entolomoides R. Heim with T. tigrinus in having a tapering upwards stipe, dark grey pileus and greyish white to grey stipe. However, T. entolomoides has been originally described from Congo by
In our multi-locus phylogeny, T. tigrinus is closely related to T. intermedius, T. radicatus Natarajan and T. striatus. However, T. intermedius has a cylindrical stipe, and cheilocystidia clavate to pyriform, narrowly lageniform, lageniform or broadly lageniform (this study). Termitomyces radicatus has a pale orange pileus, dark brown perforatorium, relatively smaller pileus (1.5–3.5 cm), and cylindrical stipe (
The epithet “yunnanensis” refers to the holotype coming from Yunnan province.
Holotype: China. Yunnan province: Kunming city, Shilin county, 20 August 2020, elev. 1580 m, S.M. Tang (Holotype: HKAS124501, isotype
Differs from other Termitomyces species in having a clearly conspicuously venose pileus surface, and an umbonate perforatorium.
Basidiomata medium-sized. Pileus 4–8 cm in diam., at first convex becoming convexo-applanate to plano-concave or concave, medium grey (1E1), olive grey (1E2), light grey (1D1) to greenish grey (1D2) at center, light grey (1D1) towards margin, conspicuously venose surface; margin inflexed when young, becoming straight or reflexed when mature; perforatorium an umbo, ca. 7–9 mm, dark grey (1F1); context 2–4 mm thick half-way to the margin, tough, white (1A1). Lamellae subventricose, free to adnexed, crowded; lamellulae in 1–2 tiers, white (1A1), 3–5 mm wide; lamellar edge eroded. Stipe 3–4 × 1–2 cm, central, cylindrical, rarely subbulbous at the base, smooth; context solid, fibrous, white (1A1). Annulus absent. Pseudorhiza terete, tapering downwards, surface grey (1D1–2) to dark grey (1F1–1F2), smooth; context solid, fibrous.. Odour slightly fragrant. Taste not distinctive.
Basidia of two conspicuously different types by the sterigmata apex acute or obtuse, first type rather abundant, sterigmata apex acute, clavate, mostly 2–spored, sometimes 4–spored, 20–30 × 7–15 μm, av. 25 ± 2.4 × 11 ± 1.8 μm, sterigmata 1–4 μm long; the second type fewer in number, sterigmata obtuse, clavate, mostly 2–spored, sometimes 4–spored, 24–32 × 8–15 μm, av. 27 ± 2.2 × 10 ± 1.1 μm, sterigmata 2–3 (–5) μm long. Basidiospores [139/2/2] 6.5–10.2 (–11.1) × (3.9–) 4.5–8.2 (–9.1) μm, Lm × Wm = 8.6 ± 1.0 × 5.9 ± 0.8 μm, Q = 1.2–1.8, Qm = 1.47 ± 0.16, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid, colorless, thin-walled, smooth. Hymenophoral trama regular, parallel, 150–200 μm wide, made up of thin-walled, ellipsoid to clavate inflated cells hyphae 20–28 μm wide, filamentous hyphae abundant, 3–6 μm wide. Subhymenium 10–20 μm thick, with 1–2 layers of ovoid, subglobose, fusiform, ellipsoid or irregular cells, 7–13 × 3–6 μm. Cheilocystidia 14–37 × 13–23 μm, av. 23 ± 9.1 × 18 ± 4.9 μm, ellipsoid, obovoid to broadly clavate, thin-walled. Pleurocystidia similar to cheilocystidia in shape, 33–50 × 19–32 μm, av. 37 ± 9.1 × 25 ± 5.8 μm. Lamellar edge heteromorphous, more in number of cheilocystidia. Pileipellis 2-layered, suprapellis an ixocutis, 9–39 × 3–5 μm av. 23 ± 8.1 × 4 ± 0.5 μm, cylindrical hyphae with obtuse apex, thin-walled, hyaline at places in KOH; subpellis made up of inflated elements, subcylindrical, 17–49 × 10–18 μm av. 34 ± 9.2 × 13 ± 2.4 μm. Clamp connections not seen in any tissues.
Solitary above underground termite nests; basidiomata occurring in summer. Known from southwestern China.
China. Yunnan Province: Kunming city, Shilin county, Banqiao town, 11 July 2019 alt. 1500 m, J. He (HKAS 124502); ibid, 11 July 2019, alt. 1350 m, S.M. Tang (KHAS 124503); Yuxi city, Eshan county, 7 August 2019, alt. 1480 m, S.M. Tang (HKAS 124517).
Termitomyces yunnanensis is distinguished from other Termitomyces species by its clearly striated pileus surface, medium grey, olive grey, light grey to greenish grey at center, light grey towards margin on the pileus surface; perforatorium dark grey and umbonate, thin-walled or thick-walled basidia, ellipsoid, obovoid to broadly clavate cheilocystidia and pleurocystidia.
According to our multi-locus phylogenetic analyses, T. yunnanensis was clustered together with T. subumkowaan Mossebo and T. robustus. However, T. subumkowaan has yellowish to brownish grey pileus, obtuse perforatorium concolorous with pileus, stipe cylindrical, bulbous at the base, and pleurocystidia extremely rare (
Morphologically, T. medius R. Heim & Grassé, T. mammiformis, T. griseiumbo and T. striatus are similar to T. yunnanensis in having a clearly striated pileus surface. However, T. medius has smaller pileus (2.2–2.9 cm), and acute perforatorium, reflexed pileus margin when mature, smaller basidiospores (6–8 × 4–4.8 μm) and basidia (17–20 × 7–7.5 μm), pleurocystidia (25–40 × 12–25 μm) narrowly utriform, ovoid to obovoid (
Termitomyces striatus originally described from Sierra Leone (Africa), has clear striae on the pileus, ring of scales on the pseudorhiza, and small basidiospores (6.5–7.7 × 4–5 μm) (
To date, 14 Termitomyces species have been reported from China. However, the identification of some species, namely T. aurantiacus, T. eurrhizus, T. entolomoides, T. globulus, T. mammiformis and T. tylerianus, was based on morphology only. Further studies using DNA sequence analyses are required to confirm or inform the presence of those species in China.
1 | Basidiomata small, with pileus diam. ≤ 4.5 cm when mature | 2 |
– | Basidiomata medium to large, with pileus diam. > 4.5 cm when mature | 5 |
2 | Pileus surface cream to whitish; pileus diam. 2.5–3.0 cm; perforatorium pointed, pseudorhiza long and slender, cheilocystidia and pleurocystidia absent, annulus present | T. tylerianus |
– | Pileus surface brownish-gray, dirty white, grayish brown | 3 |
3 | Pseudorhiza absent or present; pileus small, diam. 1.2–2.5 cm, dirty-white, soon split at the margin | T. microcarpus |
– | Pseudorhiza present, pileus larger | 4 |
4 | Pileus 2.0–4.5 cm diam., stipe white to cream, cylindrical, smooth | T. fragilis |
– | Pileus 3.5–4.0 cm diam.; stipe pale grey, tapering upwards, floccules | T. entolomoides |
5 | Pileus white or greyish white | 6 |
– | Pileus ochraceous-orange or yellowish-brown, grey to dark brown or dirty white | 7 |
6 | Stipe surface smooth, perforatorium obtuse, gray to brownish gray | T. heimii |
– | Stipe surface squamulose, perforatorium mammiform, pale brown to dark brown | T. mammiformis |
7 | Pileus ochraceous-orange or yellowish-brown | 8 |
– | Pileus grey to dark brown or dirty white | 9 |
8 | Perforatorium mucronate, pileus reddish-brown, 5–8 cm diam.; stipe white to whitish, cylindrical | T. aurantiacus |
– | Perforatorium non-differentiated, pileus reddish-brown to yellowish-brown, 15–20 cm diam., stipe white, smooth and tapering upwards | T. globulus |
9 | Annulus present; perforatorium strongly differentiated; stipe cylindrical, pseudorrhiza black and long | T. eurrhizus |
– | Annulus absent, pseudorrhiza white to pale yellow | 10 |
10 | Stipe cylindrical | 11 |
– | Stipe tapering upwards | 12 |
11 | Pileus densely tomentose to tomentose-squamulose, regular greyish white and grey dark rimose-squamulose in dry condition | T. intermedius |
– | Pileus surface conspicuously venose, smooth | T. yunnanensis |
12 | Stipe surface with white to yellowish-brown floccules and tapering upwards, pileus 5–22 cm diam.; perforatorium broadly round or blunt | T. bulborhizus |
– | Stipe surface smooth | 13 |
13 | Stipe grey, cheilocystidia few, broadly clavate, perforatorium acute, pileus dark grey, greyish white to grey, stipe greyish white to grey on the surface | T. tigrinus |
– | Stipe white, cheilocystidia common mostly Y-shaped, perforatorium obtuse, pileus white to cream, stipe white on the surface | T. upsilocystidiatus |
In this study, we combined sequences of three non-translated loci (nrLSU, mrSSU and ITS) to carry out phylogenetic analyses of Termitomyces species in order to investigate the phylogenetic relationships between the two new species we described and other Termitomyces species.
Most Termitomyces species have uniform morphology, although some show extensive variability. In this study, five T. intermedius specimens were collected from Yunnan Province, China and showed differences in stipe surface colour and cheilocystidia shape when compared to the holotype of T. intermedius from Japan (
In China, Termitomyces species are considered as delicacies, widely collected and consumed by local people, usually stir-fried with chili, bacon and garlic. They are called “Jizongjun” in Chinese, which means the taste of chicken. Termitomyces species are considered nutritious (a good source of proteins, lipids, crude fibres and minerals) for a daily healthy diet (
To date, 14 Termitomyces species have been reported in China (including the result in this study) namely T. aurantiacus (Yunnan and Gui zhou), T. bulborhizus (Sichuan and Yunnan), T. eurrhizus (Berk.) R. Heim (Yunnan, Henan, Guizhou, Tibet, Guangdong and Hainan), T. entolomoides R. Heim (Guangdong), T. fragilis L. Ye, Karun, J. C. Xu, K. D. Hyde & Mortimer (Yunnan), T. globulus R. Heim & Gooss.-Font. (Sichuan and Yunnan), T. heimii (Yunnan), T. intermedius Har. Takah. & Taneyama (Henan, Guangdong and Yunnan), T. mammiformis (Yunnan and Tibet), T. microcarpus (Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou), T. tigrinus (Yunnan), T. tylerianus Otieno (Yunnan and Guangdong), T. upsilocystidiatus (Yunnan), T. yunnanensis (Yunnan) (
Termitomyces tigrinus and T. yunnanensis are widely distributed in the subtropical broad-leaved forests of Dali, Yuxi, Baoshan, and Chuxiong in Yunnan, where the annual average temperature is 12–22 °C, and the elevation is between 1,000–3,500 m (
This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China to Shu-Hong Li (No. 32060006, 31160010, 31560009, and 31960391) and Yunnan Science and Technology Department and Technology Talents and Platform Program “Yunnan Province Technology Innovation Talents Objects” (Project ID 2017HB084) and edible fungi industry system of China (CARS-20), and YCJ[2020]323. The authors appreciate the support given by Thesis Writing Grant of Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand, to S.-M. Tang. J. Degreef, A. Mukandera and the herbarium of Meise Botanic Garden, Belgium (BR) are also thanked for the loan of specimens.