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THE QUEENSLAND MYCOLOGIST
Bulletin of
The Queensland Mycological Society Inc
Vol 15 Issue 1/2. Autumn/Winter 2020
2
QMS Committee
President
Wayne Boatwright
info@qldfungi.org.au
Vice President
Warwick Nash
Secretary
Vivian Sandoval
info@qldfungi.org.au
Treasurer
Wayne Boatwright
Membership Secretary
Frances Guard
memsec@qldfungi.org.au
Committee Member:
Vanessa Ryan
Ola Roman
Other office holders
Collection Permit Holder
Warwick Nash
Permit Data Collector
Vivian Sandoval
Website Maintenance
Vanessa Ryan
Website Administration
Thinkaloud Consulting
think@thinkaloud.com.au
https://thinkaloud.com.au/
Librarian
Position vacant
Newsletter Editor
David Holdom
david.holdom@iinet.net.au
Membership
Membership of QMS is $25 per annum, due at the beginning of each calendar
year, and is open to anyone with an interest in Queensland fungi. Membership is
not restricted to people living in Queensland. Membership forms are available on
the website, http://qldfungi.org.au/.
Could members please notify the membership secretary
(memsec@ qldfungi.org.au ) of changes to their contact details, especially e-mail
addresses.
Cover Illustration
This beautiful photograph of a mushroom fluorescing under UV light
was taken by Linda Reinhold. © Linda Reinhold. See page 5 for many
more.
The Queensland Mycologist
The Queensland Mycologist
is issued quarterly, but issues may be combined if
there is insufficient material for four issues. Members are invited to submit short
articles or photos to the editor for publication. It is important to note that it is a
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The Queensland Mycological Society
ABN No 18 351 995 423
Internet: http://qldfungi.org.au/
Email: info@qldfungi.org.au
Address: PO Box 1307, Caloundra, Qld 4551, Australia
Society Objectives
The objectives of the Queensland Mycological Society are to:
1. Provide a forum and a network for amateur and professional mycologists to
share their common interest in macro-fungi;
2. Stimulate and support the study and research of Queensland macro-fungi
through the collection, storage, analysis and dissemination of information about
fungi through workshops and fungal forays;
3. Promote, at both the state and federal levels, the identification of
Queensland’s macrofungal biodiversity through documentation and publication
of its macro-fungi;
4. Promote an understanding and appreciation of the roles macro-fungal
biodiversity plays in the health of Queensland ecosystems; and
5. Promote the conservation of indigenous macro-fungi and their relevant
ecosystems.
Contents
QMS calendar 4
Editor's comments 4
Fluorescent forests: Of mushrooms and marsupials 5
Lion’s mane “crab” cakes 12
Short note on
Neolentinus sp.
13
Old friends in a new place. Extension of distribution of
Marasmius
lebeliae
13
QMS partnership with "Bugs and Beads" shop 14
QMS Activities
COVID-19 update
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in person meetings and workshops are suspended until further notice.
It is planned to hold meetings via Zoom. Forays with limited number and appropriate social
distancing may proceed. Check the website and watch out for emails from Wayne Boatwright on that.
Meetings
Please note that since November 2019, meeting times have changed and at present in-person meetings are
suspended because of the COVID-19 crisis. When they can be held, meetings are held in the F.M. Bailey
Room at the Queensland Herbarium, Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha Road, Toowong, from
4 pm – 6 pm on the second Tuesday of the month from February (no January meeting), unless otherwise
scheduled. Check the website for details and any changes. There are typically 3-4 guest speakers invited
during the year, with the other meetings informal. Suggestions from members for topics or names of
potential speakers will be welcome at any time. Please contact a member of the Committee.
To assist those unable to attend meetings, notes on the talks are included in the Queensland Mycologist
and on the website if possible. However, the notes never do justice to the topic as they do not reflect the
enthusiasm of the speaker or cover the discussion that follows, and not all talks are written up for the
newsletter. So remember, where possible, it is better to attend the meetings, get the information first
hand, and participate in these invaluable information sharing opportunities.
Suppers are provided by volunteers. Please bring a plate if you can.
Forays
QMS hold regular forays during the first half of the year. The dates are nominally the 4th Saturday of the
month, but actual dates may vary and additional forays may also be held. Field trip details may change as
a result of drought or other unforeseen circumstances. Check the website for changes.
Members are invited to suggest venues for additional forays. If you have any suggestions, (and especially
if you are willing to lead a foray), please contact Wayne Boatwright or another member of the Committee.
Workshops
What do you, our members, want to learn more about that could be presented in a workshop? QMS is
always on the lookout for workshop ideas. Members are encouraged to suggest topics, whether new or re-
runs of past workshops.
Send your ideas to Vivian Sandoval or Wayne Boatwright (info@qldfungi.org.au).
Details of workshops will be included in newsletters and on the QMS website as they become available.
3
QMS Calendar 2020*
MONTH MEETINGS FORAYS/WORKSHOPS
Note: This information is tentative. It is now uncertain which talks can go ahead. Please check the website, and
look out for emails from Wayne Boatwright.
July Warwick Nash: Fungi for Healing
August Kaylene Bransgrove: Hunting endophytes –
what they tell us
September Diana Leemon: Entomopathogenic fungi:
zombies, mummies and other insect horror
stories
October TBA: Wood Decay fungi
November Tony Young: Cleland slide collection?
December TBA: Lichens and the environment?
*Check the website and look out for emails for updates on the COVID-19 situation. Please note. Meetings (when
they are held again) are at 4 pm in the F.M. Bailey Room at the Queensland Herbarium, Mt Coot-tha Botanic
Gardens, Mt Coot-tha Road, Toowong.
Editor's comments
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4
Fluorescent forests:
Of mushrooms and marsupials
Linda Reinhold
This is an account of 12 nights exploring the
phenomenon of fluorescence in the rainforests of
Tropical North Queensland. My UV torch lit up at
least 14 species of fluorescent mushrooms, and
three species of fluorescent marsupials.
Fluorescence: Fluorescence, measured using a
fluorometer, is a type of luminescence called
photoluminescence, where a substance needs to
have light shone on it in order to glow. Differing from
the chemical process of bioluminescence (where an
organism creates its own light through an enzymatic
chemical reaction, visibly glowing to the unaided
human eye), fluorescence is a physical process in
which fluorescent molecules absorb ultraviolet (UV)
radiation and translate it to colours visible to the
human eye. As the molecules return from an excited
to a ground state, the photons they absorbed are
released at a longer wavelength and hence a
different colour (Smith and Roman 2020).
Fluorescence in living organisms is also known as
biofluorescence or natural autofluorescence.
Fluorescent road signs contain specially developed
intensely fluorescent pigments and appear brighter
under sunlight because they absorb invisible
ultraviolet light and re-emit it at visible wavelengths.
Particularly at dawn and dusk, or when overcast, the
signs appear to glow and can be seen at a greater
distance (3M Company).
Ultraviolet vision in animals: Humans generally
can’t discern natural fluorescence during daylight
because the ambient visible light is too bright, and
that probably applies to most other animals as well.
Because our eyes are shielded by ultraviolet-filtering
pigments in our lenses we also cannot see
ultraviolet light reflected from surfaces (Primack
1982; Cronin and Bok 2016). Some Antarctic and
Arctic animals which do see in UV wavelengths have
a different mechanism for protecting their retinas
from intense UV reflection off snow (Hemmingsen
and Douglas 1970; Hogg et al. 2011).
Ultraviolet vision means an animal can see in UV
wavelengths and therefore see patterns and images
formed by reflected UV light (Cronin and Bok 2016).
Some flowers have UV-reflective patterning to guide
in pollinators such as bees (Primack 1982).
Invertebrates, in general, have a wide vision
spectrum, including ultraviolet (Salcedo et al. 2003).
Some mammals such as rodents and bats also have
UV vision (Jacobs and Deegan 1994; Zhao et al.
2009). Many more animals have UV photosensitivity,
which simply means that they have a behavioural
response to ultraviolet light (Cronin and Bok 2016).
Fluorescence, however, involves the absorption of
UV light and its retransmission as visible light. It is
not known to what extent animals can perceive the
faint fluorescence generated by ambient UV. If they
cannot then fluorescence may simply be a
mechanism of absorbing UV either for protection, or
to make them less visible to organisms that can see
in ultraviolet. Its role, if it can be seen, is uncertain.
Occurrence of fluorescence in nature: A review of
fluorescence in nature lists plant leaves, fruits,
flowers, birds, butterflies, beetles, dragonflies,
millipedes, cockroaches, bees, spiders, scorpions
and sea organisms (Lagorio 2015). The property of
fluorescence in fungi, initially for use in the medical
detection of tinea, has been known since 1925
(Margarot and Deveze 1925).
For several decades, the presence of fluorescence
has been used by some authors as a taxonomic
character for
Cortinarius
species in Europe and
South America (Moser 1969; Moser and Horak 1975).
Fluorescence has also been used as a character to
differentiate species of
Cortinarius
in New Zealand
(Soop 2005, 2017). In Australia, intense fluorescence
has been described in the flesh of a species of
Dermocybe
(Gill 1995).
The compound responsible for yellow fluorescence
in
Cortinarius
is the glycoside leprocybin (Kopanski
et al. 1982). The intense blue fluorescence of
C.
infractus
is generated by compounds that are also
responsible for its bitter taste (Steglich et al. 1984).
These compounds are derivatives of -carboline, β
which is the dominant compound involved in the
intense blue fluorescence of scorpions (Stachel et
al. 1999).
The nephrotoxin orellanine contributes to secondary
fluorescence in the mushrooms of
C. fluorescens
and several other
Cortinarius
species in Europe and
the Americas. After exposure to light of 366 nm,
extracted orellanine breaks down into orelline and
gives off a bluish-white fluorescence (Rapior et al.
1988; Laatsch and Matthies 1991). This fluorescence
has been used to discriminate species of highly toxic
Cortinarius
from non-toxic ones (Kidd et al. 1985),
but Oubrahim et al. (1997) cautioned that the
amount of fluorescence displayed is not an indicator
of a mushroom’s toxicity to humans as is claimed by
some mushroom handbooks. These substances may
have different roles, e.g. extracts of mushrooms
containing orellanine inhibit growth of the
bacterium
Bacillus subtilis
(Koller et al. 2002).
All species of
Russula
that Henkel et al. (2000)
tested were fluorescent, distinguishing them from
Lactarius
in which none have yet been found to be
fluorescent, but that may not apply world-wide. In
Europe, the intensity of fluorescence is used by
some authors as a taxonomic characteristic
differentiating species of
Russula
(Fellner and Landa
5
1993). In
Russula spp.,
fluorescence is facilitated by
water-soluble pteridines (lumazines), the
russupteridines. Pro-lumazine gives a strong violet-
blue fluorescence and russupteridine-yellow gives a
strong yellow fluorescence (Iten et al. 1984).
Interest in looking for fluorescence in general
biology is only recently gaining momentum, with a
fluorescent sea turtle being discovered in 2015
(Gruber and Sparks 2015) and the first of many
fluorescent frogs only discovered in 2017 (Taboada
et al. 2017). Mammalian fluorescence was first
discovered in opossums in 1983 (Meisner 1983), but
not until 2017 in flying squirrels (Kohler et al. 2019).
There has been relatively little interest in the
phenomenon of fluorescence in Australia. This
article documents the discovery of fluorescent
mushrooms and marsupials in the Wet Tropics
Region of Queensland.
Fluorescence observations in the Wet Tropics
Over the last couple of wet seasons, I’ve spent
numerous nights observing luminous mushrooms,
foxfire and fireflies in the forests around Cairns. On 2
March 2020, I went on an excursion to the rainforest
of Lake Barrine on the Atherton Tablelands to look
for glowing mushrooms, but this time took a 395 nm
UV light, also called a black light. While looking at a
cluster of mushrooms that were glowing, I used the
UV light to test them for fluorescence. They did not
show any, but some small fungi in the nearby leaf
litter lit up. That was useful to see an example and
determine as fluorescent anything that lit up
noticeably brighter than its surrounds in the UV
beam. Continuing, while my buddy walked ahead
looking for luminescent mushrooms, I used the UV
light to look for fluorescent ones. Later that night, on
the other side of the lake, a hollow log full of
smallish mushrooms lit up in the beam of the UV
light. The pileus surface and stipe were a stunning
pale blue, yet the lamellae remained dull. In regular
torchlight, these mushrooms were a drab pale
yellowy brown, the sort of colour that would go
relatively unnoticed in the daytime. Another species
of mushroom growing on the opposite wall of the
same log did not fluoresce at all. The occurrence of
blue in fluorescence may arguably be partly due to
blue visible light produced from the UV source, but
the stark contrast between different parts of the
same fungus, and between different fungi on the
same log, demonstrate that actual fluorescence was
occurring.
The next night expedition, to the Ivan Evans Walk in
suburban Cairns on 6 March, revealed similar
mushrooms, glowing the same ultra blue, yet less
numerous and growing on the outside of a log.
The same log hosted another fluorescent blue
lifeform, looking like a head of coral, possibly an
anamorph similar to
Xylocoremium
.
Back at Ivan Evans on 10 March, the coral-like
fungus was still fluorescing. Higher up on the trail,
there was a log covered in fan-shaped polypore
fungi, very mildly fluorescing pale cyan. In regular
torchlight, they were drab pale orangey brown.
Growing on a stick down towards the wet gully, a
single infundibuliform polypore fluoresced
spectacularly with a pale blue pileus edged in pale
pink, pale pink pores and a bright orange base.
6
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Numerous scorpions were also fluorescing along the
Ivan Evans Walk, sharing the forest with fluorescing
and luminescing fungi. Their fluorescence was
similar in colour and intensity to the ultra blue
mushrooms.
On 15 March, the only fungus fluorescing along the
walking trails at Malanda Falls Conservation Park
was a single ground-growing mushroom with a pale
blue pileus, pale blue lamellae and a bright yellow
stipe. In regular torchlight, the mushroom was drab
pale brown.
On 29 March, two more species were fluorescing on
a rainy night at the Tulip Oak Walk at Malanda Falls.
Both were less than 3 cm in diameter and appeared
a drab whitish tinged with brown in regular
torchlight. One species resembling
Polyporus
grammocephalus
fluoresced wildly with purple, pink
and orange. Only the two mature specimens did this
though; the over-mature specimen did not fluoresce;
neither did the immature specimens growing out of
the same stick. A single tall-stiped ground
mushroom fluoresced bright pale blue all over,
including the lamellae.
Back along the Ivan on 14 April there were two more
faintly fluorescent aged, colonies of wood-growing
polypores, which may have been the same species
as I had seen already. A single old
Cymatoderma
elegans
was fluorescing a very mild cyan (a fresh
one I had seen on 10 March was not noticeably
fluorescent). On previous nights I had discounted
any fluorescence perceived from fungi which were
white, in case what I was seeing was just reflected
7
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light. This night I stopped to photograph a colony of
Microporus
sp., which were mildly fluorescent.
Although white, the uneven distribution of glow
across the under-surface suggests they were faintly
fluorescing as well as just reflecting light. The
immature stipes were also fluorescent.
Later that night a single ground-growing fluorescent
mushroom proved that being white alone is not
enough to fluoresce: its cream-coloured pileus and
stipe fluoresced a pale purplish blue, yet the white
lamellae did not.
Checking Lake Eacham for fluorescence on 16 April,
there were some dishevelled fan fungi, both gilled
and pored, that were very mildly fluorescing. I had
not seen the gilled ones before. Another set of fresh,
mature, pored fan fungi faintly fluoresced a very pale
blue all over, edged underneath with pinky-orange
and yellow, despite the surface being cream-
coloured in regular torchlight. There were also very
mildly fluorescing fan fungi at Malanda Falls that
night, but I am not sure if they add to the fluorescent
species tally.
Also on the Lake Eacham night I had seen a couple
of quickly-moving fluorescent animals that looked
like small mammals. They stood out brilliant white
against the dark forest floor. The third time I saw
one, it paused long enough and close enough for me
to shine regular torchlight on it for a few seconds,
then switch back to the UV torch which confirmed
its brilliant white fluorescence before it darted away.
Under the regular torchlight it had a distinctly long
pointy face, black eyes and brown fur, an
antechinus,
Antechinus adustus
or
stuartii
. Further
on, a larger animal fluoresced white as it loped off. It
stopped a few metres away, too far for my camera to
focus with the low light emitted from the UV torch,
but close enough for colour flash photos. It was a
long-nosed bandicoot,
Perameles nasuta
.
On 17 April, I went to Lake Placid and Stoney Creek
at the base of Barron Gorge. Apart from the
scorpions, the only lifeforms even mildly fluorescing
were foxfire-like logs and a couple of polypore
species similar to ones I had seen before. A rodent
paused close to me, but it did not fluoresce.
Previous walks through Sawpit Gully Reserve and
the Cairns Botanic Gardens had revealed nothing.
I had not seen any fluorescence in plants, yet the
fluorescence of fungal fruiting bodies was so intense
that it could be seen in a single pass of a UV torch
powered by a single AA cell. More effort would be
required to see it in plants. However, there had been
trees that were covered in mildly fluorescent bark,
which could have been caused by lichen. There were
also fallen leaves that fluoresced, but this might
have been the doings of decay fungi. Fungal
mycelium was also mildly fluorescing on raw wood,
a little like the foxfire of luminescent fungi.
Not because of this limitation but because I wanted
to get photographs of the fluorescing marsupials, I
bought a new torch, a 51 LED 395 nm black light
powered by three AA cells and very much brighter
than the one-cell torch used up until now. It boasted
a brightness of 20,000-22,000 mcd (millicandela),
eclipsing the 80-150 mcd of the original torch. New
torch in hand, I headed back up to Lake Eacham on
the night of 30 April. It lit up the forest like tins of
fluorescent paint had exploded all over the place.
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The torch turned most plants purple, but patches of
orange, yellow, green and a dash of peach stood out
against the mostly dark forest. Whereas lichen look
like camouflage on tree trunks during the day, it is
the opposite at night. My original one-cell torch
struggled pitifully in comparison. Fallen leaves that
were pale white with the one-cell were bright yellow
with the three-cell.
I had also bought a one-cell 365 nm torch to
compare with the original and see if it was better
targeted to fluorescence. The same under-the-sea
scallop-shaped fan fungi I saw the previous time,
still in good condition, fluoresced a very mild blueish
white, with the same pink patch at the base with the
new bright torch, but with the 365 nm torch, they
just fluoresced the mild blueish white colour all over,
the multicoloured highlights not showing.
With the more powerful torch, through the
undergrowth a couple of metres away I saw an
animal fluorescing orange. As it turned, parts of it
momentarily appeared red and yellow, with paler
belly fur. I recognised the familiar shape as a
northern brown bandicoot,
Isoodon macrourus
.
Further round the lake I saw a long-nosed bandicoot
at a distance. It fluoresced white, almost yellow.
Neither animal hung around to be photographed.
Several microbats flew up to me, but did not
fluoresce.
Back on the Ivan on 6 May, the three-cell torch
turned the scorpions a bright citrus yellow/green
instead of the pale cyan blue I was used to seeing. It
also brought out the fluorescence of non-fruiting
fungi on logs, turning one patch of whitish fungus
bright pink. There were four species to add to the
tally of fluorescent fungi, although they were only
mildly so. One looked somewhat like the leather
Podoscypha
sp., growing on wood. There was a
brownish polypore fan fungus also growing on
wood, which with the three-cell torch fluoresced
underneath a pale cyan with pink stipes. A different
brownish fan fungus had wide-set honeycomb-like
pores underneath that fluoresced pale yellow with
the three-cell. The other species was a smallish
mushroom growing on the buttress of a tree stump.
It was cream/white, and fluoresced with patches of
light purple at the base. The fluorescence and colour
was distinct with both the 365 and the 395 nm one-
cell torches.
Realising that the marsupials were too skittish for
fluorescence photography, I spent three days looking
for roadkills. On 14 May I found two northern brown
bandicoot roadkills by a paddock just west of Millaa
Millaa, and a platypus south of Malanda. The fur of
the platypus mostly appeared dark/purple as
expected under the UV light, but some of it turned
moss green, although not brightly so.
The bandicoots were both males with total lengths
of about 50 cm. One had a fluorescent dorsum, but
the soft belly fur did not fluoresce. It was similar to
the live one I had seen at Lake Eacham, but not
nearly as bright. Just as the stiff dorsal fur was
brindled brown, black and tan, the fluorescence was
also multicoloured. The fluorescence was mostly
pink, with strands of fur pink most of the way up
from the base, with yellow tips. Some strands of fur
remained brown or white. Some fur, particularly
behind the ears, was dark pink, a strong fuchsia or
magenta, appearing almost red. This explains why
the live bandicoot I saw appeared orange, but red
and yellow as it turned. The dorsum of the other
roadkill bandicoot did not fluoresce, yet its normally
whitish belly fur fluoresced very bright pink, like
fluoro spray paint. With the 365 nm torch, the
fluorescence appeared more orange. The skin did
not fluoresce in either bandicoot.
Summary
I searched for fluorescence on 12 expedition nights
during autumn 2020, in tropical rainforest within 55
km of Cairns. Numerous fungi did not fluoresce,
including bioluminescent species and some that
were pure white.
9
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5
Bandicoot fluorescence.5
Species identification of the fluorescent fungi is
beyond the scope of my expertise. Photographs
were taken with a Panasonic Lumix TZ80 camera,
with UV exposures between five and 30 seconds.
There was no obvious pattern to the occurrence of
fluorescence in fungal fruiting bodies. The (at least)
14 species seen so far were growing on wood or
from the ground, had lamellae or pores, and
comprised various shapes of mushrooms or fans.
Fluorescent mushrooms could either be inside the
dark of hollow logs, or out in the open. In some the
fluorescence was a uniform colour; in others the
fluorescence was multicoloured, and could
encompass the whole structure, or just parts.
Bioluminescence (glowing) in mushrooms was
recorded as far back as 1555 by Swedish scholar
Olaus Magnus (Glawe and Solberg 1995). Hundreds
of years on, scientists are still speculating on the
light’s ecological function. Perhaps different species
employ luminescence and fluorescence in different
ways. Fluorescence could simply be a by-product of
fungal chemistry.
I hope this article will generate some interest in
Queensland’s fluorescent forests. If keen naturalists
get outdoors with a UV torch, they can build a
picture of how widespread fluorescent fruiting
bodies are in the fungal kingdom. These
observations have shown mushroom fluorescence
not only occurs in our forests, but in many more taxa
than previously known.
A note on mammals: Although mammalian
fluorescence is known from the Americas, the
sightings of the fluorescent marsupials at Lake
Eacham is the first time it has been documented in
Australia. Faint green fluorescence had been noted
in strands of the fur of brushtail possums,
Trichosurus vulpecula
, but in New Zealand. The
researchers however noted that this could be due to
contamination from the possums’ fluorescent green
urine (ZIP 2018). It is remarkable that such a vivid
phenomenon as marsupial fluorescence has been of
no interest in Australia.
Just as in this article, New World flying squirrel
fluorescence was discovered by accident whilst
scanning the forest for fluorescent fungi, lichens
and plants with a 395 nm torch (Kohler et al. 2019).
Unlike our gliding possums, flying squirrels are
rodents. America also has marsupials, called
opossums, and it was in these that fluorescence was
initially discovered (Meisner 1983). Pine et al. (1985)
went on to document the phenomenon in 23 out of
31 opossum species tested. As in the northern
brown bandicoots, the skin of the flying squirrels did
not fluoresce, but it did in observations of
opossums.
All but one of the 114 individual flying squirrels
(three species) examined had varying intensities of
pink fluorescence over their dorsal and ventral
surfaces. Neither the study on squirrels nor
opossums found patterns of fluorescence related to
age, sex, season or latitude. The squirrels inhabited
forests from Canada to Guatemala. One thing they
all had in common was their nocturnal or
crepuscular habits. Three species of diurnal non-
flying squirrels did not fluoresce (Kohler et al. 2019).
The rainforest is already a low-light environment,
and the three species of fluorescent marsupials I
saw are also mostly nocturnal. The twilight of dusk
and dawn is dominated by ultraviolet wavelengths,
so it is at these times that fluorescent fur is most
likely to be visible to other animals (Johnsen et al.
2006; Cronin and Bok 2016). Even the ultraviolet of
moonlight is enough to make scorpions fluoresce
(Heathcote 2017).
One of the theories Kohler et al. (2019) suggested
was that their flying squirrels may not display
fluorescence to stand out, but to blend in to an
ultraviolet-saturated fluorescent environment,
camouflaged against fluorescing lichen-covered
trees. Our ground-dwelling mammals though, are
startlingly conspicuous. Fluorescent fur may be
widespread within marsupial taxa and, a feature of
many Australian forests.
Acknowledgements
Thanks go to my ‘shrooming buddy, Lori Lorenz, for his
enthusiasm and for sharing in the first four of the night
expeditions to the Atherton Tablelands and suburban
Cairns. Barry Muir has continued to provide
encouragement and mentoring for my fungal exploits, as
well as instigating this manuscript. Frances Guard has
also provided encouragement, and specimens of
luminescent and fluorescent tropical fungi have been
collected under her permit, issued by the Queensland
Department of Environment and Science. Specimens of
fluorescent basidiomes from Malanda Falls (LMRFNQ3
and LMRFNQ4) were collected and sent for lodgement in
the Queensland Herbarium. Comments from Patrick
Leonard greatly improved the manuscript.
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11
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Short note on
Neolentinus
sp.
a fungus mentioned in 2017, Vol. 12,
Issue 1,
Queensland Mycologist.
Frances Guard
This species grew on a hoop pine log that I was
observing over a number of years, following the
chronological sequence of fungi that were
decomposing the log. In the midst of all the white
rotters that attacked the wood, this was the only
brown rotter. It first appeared three years after the
tree was killed, and held a small territory for close to
four years. It fruited on several occasions. I have
recorded this fungus on
Araucaria
species (both
Bunya and hoop pines) for many years at Dilkusha
Nature Refuge, and have never seen it on other
hosts or in other locations.
However, its identity remained a mystery. Its tough
brown fruitbodies, serrated gills and hairy
appearance are distinctive. In the end, Dr Matt
Barrett did the molecular sequence and morphology
and concluded it is in the genus
Neolentinus
.
Neolentinus
is in the family Gloeophyllaceae, order
Gloeophyllales. Though very different in appearance,
it is related to
Gloeophyllum
, another brown rotter. It
appears to be a new species. Others in the genus
cause brown rot in conifers, one of which is called
the “Train Wrecker” because it could cause rot in
railway ties that had been treated with creosote!
Neolentinus
sp. is one to keep an eye out for when
among Hoop and Bunya pines.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Old Friends in a New Place
Extension of distribution of
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lebeliae
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