40 FUNGI Volume 9:4 Winter 2016 two other “A. sprucei” Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto sequences in GenBank, Rico, and Venezuela. also from Brazil, were Amauroderma is a genus of polypores completely different. within the family Ganodermataceae. This indicates again that The primary difference between taxonomy of Amauroderma is Amauroderma (Amauro-, meaning dark far from being settled. According or dusky, and -derma meaning skin) and to Furtado (1981), Amauroderma Ganoderma (Gano-, meaning shiny) is sprucei (and similar A. shomburgkii with the basidiospore characteristics. [Mont. & Berk.] Torrend differing only Amauroderma has round spores in brownish context) belong to most with spines which are sometimes mauroderma specimens were common Amauroderma species and have quite coarse, while Ganoderma have found in southwest Florida a wide distribution in tropical countries ellipsoid, truncate spores with spines during August 2016. They ranging from Brazil, Colombia, Costa (Ryvarden, 2004). Humphreya coffeata grewA in association with Laurel Oak (Quercus laurifolia). The specimens resemble Ganoderma and especially Humphreya coffeata, though they are smaller, more petite, and delicate. Also unlike Ganoderma which fruit directly from wood, these specimens grew terrestrially from rich soil mixed with decayed hardwood debris. Fresh samples were collected, dehydrated, and then shipped to the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, care of Josef Vlasák who is a specialist with determining polypores. They were deposited in the herbaria PRM (National Museum Prague, Mycological Department, accession PRM 944385), NY (New York Botanical Garden, Steere Herbarium), and also FLAS (University of Florida, Mycological Herbarium). The resultant morphological identification was Amauroderma sprucei (Pat.) Torrend, based on small pores (5-6 per mm), round echinulate spores (about 9µm in diameter), and white interior context. The DNA sequence of rRNA ITS region from the collection was very similar but not identical (97% of sequence identity) to A. sprucei collections from Brazil present in GenBank. Nevertheless, FUNGI Volume 9:4 Winter 2016 41 (=Ganoderma coffeatum), another taxon of Ganodermataceae, has somewhat Editor’s Pics intermediary characteristics: spores of Ganoderma shape, but with coarse spines, and elongated to transversal environmental stresses from drought crests. Amauroderma species (and Bears, mushrooms, and cold snaps, and combinations of also very similar H. coffeata) are these factors. Paul Stamets has come up widely distributed in American tropics and bees. with what he thinks is solution to CCD— and show mostly slender, stipitate interestingly it involves fungi found fruitbodies with small caps and stipes Bees are small but essential for much growing naturally in the environment— covered with brownish tomentum. of the life on our planet. Humans rely and he recently was granted a patent In the available keys (e.g. Ryvarden, heavily on bees to pollinate much of for his “Integrative fungal solutions for 2004), their determination was based the plants we grow for food, fiber, and protecting bees and overcoming colony mostly on pore and spore size; the silage for livestock. But bees are now in collapse disorder (CCD).” delimitation and distribution of most big trouble. A complex disease called This is a tale of “Bears, Mushrooms species is however poorly known. colony collapse disorder (CCD) has and Bees.” And it involves two important From 21 American species treated in been wiping out bees in North America observations in nature, a great deal of Ryvarden (2004), 8 were collected only since at least 2006. The disease is not knowledge about ecosystems, and a once or twice, which throws doubts on yet fully understood, despite years of researcher not hobbled with scientific reliability of taxonomical traits used study, but many factors seem to be dogma. It’s also 51 pages long, so I’ll for determination. Gomes-Silva et involved. Suggested causes include give you the highlights. Observation 1: al. (2015) revealed several previous increasing urbanization and loss of On one of his many forays in the old misdeterminations in Amauroderma, biodiversity, particularly wildflower growth forests of the Olympic Peninsula, added 6 more newly discovered species meadows and weeds that provided high Stamets noticed a conifer tree scratched from Brazil, and attempted broadly quality bee forage, poor nutrition and by a bear (a photograph appears in based molecular phylogeny with the malnutrition, immunodeficiencies, the book he authored, Mycelium result that polyphyletic nature of microbial pathogens including viruses, Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Amauroderma is probable, because bacteria, fungi and protozoa, both lethal Save the World). Apparently it’s pretty many Amauroderma sequences are and sub-lethal exposure to pesticides common knowledge in the Pacific more close to species of Ganoderma including insecticides, fungicides and NW that bears scratch trees. On than to other Amauroderma. herbicides, beekeeper applied miticides young conifers, particularly Douglas- Amauroderma species are typical and antibiotics, parasitic mites (Varroa fir trees, bears will rip strips of bark tropical fungi, never previously collected destructor and V. jacobsoni mites off with their teeth to reach insects in the USA according to the current and Acarapis woodi tracheal mites), or the sweet-tasting sap found inside. checklist of North American polypores the fungi Nosema ceranae and N. apis, This foraging activity is commonly (Zhou et al., 2016). heavy metals, toxic pollutants, natural plant toxins, biting insects, selective seen in tree plantations where large References Cited breeding in apiculture and loss of genetic stands of trees are similarly aged and of a single species. Stamets knew that Furtado, J.S. 1981. Taxonomy of diversity, climate change and increased Amauroderma (Basidiomycetes, Polyporaceae). Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden 34: 1-109. Gomes-Silva, A.C., N.C. De Lima Jr., E. Malosso, L. Ryvarden, and T.B. Gibertoni. 2015. Delimitation of taxa in Amauroderma (Ganodermataceae, Polyporales) based in morphology and molecular phylogeny of Brazilian specimens. Phytotaxa 227(3): 201-228. Ryvarden, L. 2004. Neotropical Polypores. Part 1. Synopsis Fungorum 19, Fungiflora, Oslo, 229 pp. Zhou, L.-W., K.K. Nakasone, H.H. Burdsall Jr., J. Ginns, J. Vlasák, O. Miettinen, V. Spirin, T. Niemelä, H.-S. Yuan, S.-H. He, B.-K. Cui, J.-H. Xing, and Y.-C. Dai. 2016. Polypore diversity in North America with an annotated checklist. Mycological Progress 15: 771–790. 42 FUNGI Volume 9:4 Winter 2016