Taxonomic study of the Japanese Dacrymycetes

The class Dacrymycetes is a rather small group of brown-rot wood-decaying jelly fungi characterised by forked basidia and an orange to yellow gelatinous to cartilaginous fruit body. In Japan, dacrymycetous fungi had not been investigated for a long time, justifying a taxonomic re-examination. In the present study we attempted an investigation of the dacrymycetous fungal flora of Japan, and recognised 28 taxonomic entities, including five new taxa, i.e. Dacrymyces ancyleus, D. aureosporus, D. pinacearum, D. subarcticus and Dacryopinax sphenocarpa, and nine new records. Due to the present survey, the total number of dacrymycetous species recorded from Japan increased from 28 to 42. Of the newly described species, Dacrymyces ancyleus is characterised by recurved, cylindrical basidiocarps and hyphae with clamp connections. Dacrymyces aureosporus resembles D. chrysospermus, but differs in wall thickness of its marginal hyphae. Dacrymyces pinacearum and D. subarcticus represent new coelomycetous anamorphic species. Dacryopinax sphenocarpa has sharp, spathulate basidiocarps, and hyphae with clamp connections. Descriptions, illustrations and photographs of fruit bodies are presented with some taxonomic notes. Molecular phylogenetic analyses were conducted to verify the species identification, and the remaining problems in Dacrymycetes taxonomy are discussed based on these data.