Lycogala conicum Pers.

Song, Wen-Long, Jiang, Zi-Qiong, Li, Min, Leontyev, Dmytro, Gao, Yang & Chen, Shuang-Lin, 2025, Comprehensive revision of Lycogala (Myxomycetes) in subtropical China: morphological and phylogenetic insights and ten new species, IMA Fungus 16, pp. e 147535-e 147535 : e147535-

Lycogala conicum Pers. , Syn. meth. fung. 1: 159 (1801)

Specimen examined.

CHINA • Zhejiang Province: Tianmu Mountain National Reserve , on rotten wood, 18 Jun 2014, collected by Wen-Long Song and Ya-Jing Chen ( HFNNU 9992 ) ; • Chongqing City: Jinfo Mountain National Nature Reserve , 29.0449°N, 107.1467°E, on rotten wood, 14 Aug 2023, collected by Shu-Zhen Yan and Shuang-Lin Chen ( HFNNU 11176 ) ; • Sichuan Province: Miyaluo Nature Reserve , on rotten wood, 11 Aug 2023, collected by Shu-Zhen Yan and Shuang-Lin Chen ( HFNNU 11177 ) ; • Sichuan Province: Miyaluo Nature Reserve , on rotten wood, 11 Aug 2023, collected by Shu-Zhen Yan and Shuang-Lin Chen ( HFNNU 11178 ) ; • Hubei Province: Houhe National Nature Reserve , 30.0783°N, 110.5700°E, on rotten wood, 23 Jul 2019, collected by Min Li ( HFNNU 11232 ) ; • Hubei Province: Houhe National Nature Reserve , 30.0807°N, 110.5822°E, on rotten wood, 23 Jul 2019, collected by Min Li ( HFNNU 11233 ) .

Distribution.

Widely distributed worldwide.

Notes.

Lycogala conicum is a common and morphologically distinct species characterized by cone-shaped sporocarps. In this study, we found six specimens that are similar to the description of L. conicum Pers. ( Martin and Alexopoulos 1969) . Published sequences assigned to L. conicum form two branches (Fig. 2 ), one containing the specimen IY 39, collected in Russia, and the other, which includes specimens EJ 18190388 ( Norway) and TVDH 551 ( Australia). Our collections cluster with the first branch (UBS = 100, PP = 1, distance of 0–0.003) and demonstrate considerable genetic distance from the second (distances 0.16 and 0.17, see Suppl. material 8). The ASAP data indicate that these two clusters of L. conicum may represent different species. Therefore, further research is necessary, integrating both morphological and phylogenetic data to confirm or refute the hypothesis that L. conicum represents a species complex.

Figures

Figure 2. Maximum likelihood tree inferred from the concatenated sequences of SSU and COI, showing the phylogenetic relationship of Lycogala. The members of Reticularia were used to root the tree. Only Maximum likelihood ultrafast bootstrap support (UBS) / Bayesian posterior probabilities (PP) ≥ 70 / 0.7 are shown. The voucher numbers are indicated after the species names. The number of identical genotypes is in parentheses (if present). The ten new species described in this study are indicated in red and bold. The four new species to China are indicated in blue and bold. Other newly obtained sequences are in bold. The scale bar represents the number of substitutions per site.