Short Communication Contribution to the macromycetes of West Bengal, India: 63–68

West Bengal, a significant landmass of eastern India with its varied topography, edaphic, and climatic conditions facilitates diversified forest types and conducive microhabitats for a wide array of macro-fungal wealth and the members of Aphyllophorales in particular. Detailed macro-microscopic characterizations and chemical reactions were performed to systematically identify the specimens using standard key and literatures. Six members of Aphyllophorales collected from different parts of West Bengal, India and four species belonging to the family Polyporaceae [Hexagonia tenuis (Fr.) Fr., Polyporus arcularius (Batsch) Fr., P. tricholoma Mont. and Lenzites elegans (Spreng.) Pat.] were identified, and a single species was identified under Meripiliaceae [Physisporinus lineatus (Pers.) F. Wu, Jia J. Chen & Y.C. Dai] and Meruliaceae [Bjerkandera fumosa (Pers.) P. Karst.]. The detailed description along with field and herbarium photographs, macro-morphology, and microscopic features of six species are provided in this article.


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During the macrofungal survey in different parts of West Bengal with various forest types (viz., mountain temperate forest, tropical mixed evergreen forests of the foothills, the deciduous forests of the plateau fringe, and the tidal forests of Sundarbans), edaphic and climatic conditions (average annual rainfall 175cm and humidity 71%), six species of the order Aphyllophorales (Basidiomycota) were identified. In continuation to our earlier publications Tarafder et al. 2017;Bera et al. 2018, Saha et al. 2018a J TT hymenophore surface, types of hymenophore, margin, presence or absence of stipe and stipe attachments were noted carefully in the field book. Colour photographs of the upper surface of the pileus, hymenophore region, context and tube layers were taken for future references. The fruiting bodies were carefully separated with the help of scalpel and chisel from the substratum. Then each collection was wrapped with tissue papers and isolated in a box to avoid contamination. The collected specimens were dried in a hot air drier prior to microscopic study. Microscopic characters were noted by crushing and making transverse sections of these dried materials by mounting and staining in 10% KOH, Congo red and Melzer's reagent and observing it under a microscope. Amyloidity/nonamyloidity/dextrinoidity of the microscopic features were observed using Melzer's reagent. Microscopic characters like hyphal system, presence or absence of clamp connections, basidia, basidiospores, cystidia, cystidioles were noticed under Carl Zeiss AX10 Imager A1 phase contrast microscope for systematically identifying the specimens. Standard keys and published literatures have been referred to in order to compare our specimens and identify them correctly (Roy et al. 1996;Sharma 2012). For colour terms and codes of specimens, the Methuen Handbook of Colour was used (Kornerup et al. 1978). To calculate the dimensions of basidiospores, 30 measurements were taken from each sample. The Q value is denoted by Length/breadth ratio. The measurement of mean Q value (Q m ) was done by dividing total sum of Q value by total number of spores observed. Outline of all identifying characters were drawn using camera lucida and 0.1mm rotring pen was used to trace the lines. Standard protocol was followed to preserve the specimens (Pradhan et al. 2015). The voucher specimens were systematically deposited at CUH (Calcutta University Herbarium) (Image 1a-f), Kolkata, India.
Remarks: The present specimen is characterized by its sessile basidiocarp, semicircular, glabrous pelius with concentric zones; greyish violet (17D6) in KOH when fresh and blackening in KOH when dry; hexagonal shaped pores, 1 per mm; trimitic type of hyphal system; clamped generative hyphae; basidiospores measuring 13.60-22.19 × 3.58-4.29 µm in diameter with mean Q value of 4.33.
The description of our collection agreeably matches with the previous report from Malaya and Bardwan (Roy et al. 1996). The specimen reported from eastern Africa and Uttarakhand (Sharma 2012) differs by having larger spores (7-11 × 2-3.5 µm, Ryvarden & Johansen (1980) and 7-9 × 2-3 µm, Sharma (2012)) that may be attributed to the reason of climatic and geographical variations. The specimen reported from Kerala (Leelavathy et al. 2000) varies a bit from the present collection with regard to the absence of cystidiole.
In the Indian context, the present taxon was previously reported from Uttarakhand (Dehra Dun). Our collection mostly matches with the specimens reported from Dehra Dun (Sharma 2012) except having slight variations in basidiocarp size. The present specimen is smaller in size with respect to the specimen of Dehra Dun i.e., 100-200 mm wide and 10-30 mm thick (Sharma 2012) that may be attributed due to the reason of climatic and geographical variations. The collection, however, reported from eastern Africa (Ryvarden & Johansen 1980) and North Carolina (Grand 2011) matches with the description of our collected specimen.
Habit and habitat: Solitary to gregarious, grown on dead wood of angiosperm.
Our collection appropriately matches with the previous reports of Uttarakhand (Sharma 2012), Kerala (Leelavathy et al. 2000) and eastern Africa (Ryvarden & Johansen 1980). The specimen reported from Europe bears most resemblances with our collection except for having a larger basidiocarp.
Considering morphological features, the description of our collected specimen matches with the earlier report of Uttarakhand (Sharma 2012) and the collection reported from Bardwan (Roy et al. 1996) and America (Jung et al. 2014) varies a bit from the present collection with regards to the longer size of the basidiospores (4-6.5 × 2-3.5 µm and 5-5.5 × 2-3.5 µm respectively). The description reported from Russia and Europe, however, matches well with the description of our collected specimen.
Among macro-microscopically closely related taxa, Bjerkandera adusta (Willd.) P. Karst. differs by having thinner context (up to 6mm) and a greyish-black zone between the context and tube layer which is concolorous with the tube layer (Sharma 2012). www.threatenedtaxa.org The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservation globally by publishing peer-reviewed articles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All articles published in JoTT are registered under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License unless otherwise mentioned. JoTT allows allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of articles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

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