Amanita calopus - Amanitaceae.org - Taxonomy and Morphology of Amanita and Limacella

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name	Amanita calopus
name status	nomen acceptum
author	(Beeli) E.-J. Gilbert
english name	"African Sister Ringless Amanita"
images	1. Amanita calopus, Copperbelt Prov., Zambia.
intro	This description is based on that of Beeli (1935) with additions from notes of recent collectors, etc.
cap	The cap is 25 - 60 mm wide, convex to plano-concave, and rather thin. The context of the cap is firm and white. The cap margin is long-striate. The remains of the volva on the cap are friable and may be in pyramidal warts or disordered.
gills	The gills are free, attenuate at both ends, white, and 5 mm broad. The gills are not described. Beeli provided no information on the short gills.
stem	The stem is 100^- - 110 × 3 - 9 mm, cylindric or narrowing slightly upward, and has a small bulb at the base. It is stuffed, and its flesh is white. Its surface is fibrous to pulverulent, white at the apex and becomes darker downward through pale smokey gray to smokey gray at the base. It is easily detached from the cap. There is no annulus, and the friable volva (white or light gray with a pale orangish tint where not long exposed to air and sunlight) is distributed in one or more complete or broken rings at the base of the stem, above the small cuplike part of the volva that may appear to be a basal bulb. These volval remnants in rings are, finally, the same color as those on the cap.
odor/taste	The taste is bitter. The odor is not recorded.
spores	The spores of a small amount of recent material from Zambia measure 7.8 - 13.6 (-15.1) × (5.5-) 6.0 - 8.8 (-9.0) µm and are ellipsoid to elongate and inamyloid. Clamps are absent from bases of basidia.
discussion	Beeli reported this species as occurring under Gilbertiodendron (=Macrolobium) dewevrei. It was described from the Democratic Republic of Congo and is known from central Africa. For comparison to somewhat similar species from other regions, see A. ceciliae (Berk. & Broome) Bas, A. sororcula Tulloss, Ovrebo & Halling, and A. rhacopus nom. prov.. Note however the ellipsoid to elongate spores of the African species easily separate it from other Ringless Amanitas with friable, graying volvas. Evidence is growing that taxonomists have not resolved the meaning of A. calopus in the strictest sense. Tang et al. have recently published a proposed description and DNA sequence. Their macroscopic description does not match that of the species depicted on this page. The DNA from the collection RET examined does not match that from the Shah-Smith collection examined by Tang et al. Tang's spore data is very similar to RET's. However, limited available spore data from the original collection of A. calopus differs from both Tang's and ours. Moreover, Tang et al. report that the description of Pegler and Shah-Smith is based on collections of more than one species. In eastern North America, we are finding a large number of taxa with graying, friable universal veil in section Vaginatae. For some time, North American mycologists used to simply misapply one name (A. ceciliae) to all the probably distinct taxa. In another large and heavily forested continent, why should we expect a simplicity that we do not find elsewhere? Why should we expect that, within Amanita the limited descriptions of early workers will present no problem to intepretation? The evidence for a contrary position is mounting.—R. E. Tulloss
brief editors	RET

name

Amanita calopus

author

(Beeli) E.-J. Gilbert. 1941. Iconogr. Mycol. (Milan) 27, suppl. (2): 228, tab. 9.

name status

nomen acceptum

english name

"African Sister Ringless Amanita"

synonyms

≡Amanitopsis calopus Beeli. 1931. Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belgique 63: 108, tab. 9 (fig. 14).

The editors of this site owe a great debt to Dr. Cornelis Bas whose famous cigar box files of Amanita nomenclatural information gathered over three or more decades were made available to RET for computerization and make up the lion's share of the nomenclatural information presented on this site.

MycoBank nos.

315736

GenBank nos.

Due to delays in data processing at GenBank, some accession numbers may lead to unreleased (pending) pages. These pages will eventually be made live, so try again later.

accession	locus	voucher	source
KU186805	nrLSU	14-24.xii.2000 David Arora 00-370 (RET 345-8)	L. V. Kudzma, Annandale, NJ

lectotypes

lectotypifications

E.-J. Gilbert. 1940. Iconogr. Mycol. (Milan) 27, suppl.: 92, tab. 6 (fig. 6). [Collection cited as "type" in caption to figure.]

selected illustrations

Beeli. 1935. Fl. Champ. Congo 1: pl. 4 (fig. 5).

intro

The following text may make multiple use of each data field.

The field may contain magenta text presenting data from a type study and/or revision of other original material cited in the protolog of the present taxon. Macroscopic descriptions in magenta are a combination of data from the protolog and additional observations made on the exiccata during revision of the cited original material.

The same field may also contain black text, which is data from a revision of the present taxon (including non-type material and/or material not cited in the protolog). Paragraphs of black text will be labeled if further subdivision of this text is appropriate.

Olive text indicates a specimen that has not been thoroughly examined (for example, for microscopic details) and marks other places in the text where data is missing or uncertain.

The following material is derived from the protolog of the present species, (Beeli 1935), (Gilbert 1940 & 1941), and original research of R. E. Tulloss.

pileus

from protolog: 50 - 60 mm wide, fuligineous-gray, plano-convex to concave; context white, firm; margin striate; universal veil as dark pyramidal warts.

lamellae

from protolog: free, density not recorded, white, ca. 5 mm broad; lamellulae not described.

stipe

from protolog: 100 - 110 × 5 - 9 mm, grayish, cylindric, fibrous, pulverulent, easily detached from pileus; context hollow, white, firm; exannulate; universal veil ephemeral, forming series of orangish rings on the stipe base and a cupulate volva. [Note: Mme. Goossens' watercolor show a darkened ring of probable limbus internus on lower stipe above the orange rings on one basidiome and above a cupulate volva on a second basidiome (e.g. Gilbert 1941: tab. 9).—ed.]

macrochemical
tests

none recorded.

pileipellis

not described.

pileus context

not described.

lamella trama

not described.

subhymenium

not described.

basidia

not described.

universal veil

not described.

stipe context

not described.

partial veil

absent.

lamella edge tissue

sterile.

basidiospores

send to graphing tool

from protolog: 10 - 14 × 6 - 8 μm, hyaline, smooth, ellipsoid. [Note: Given the stated measurements, the spores are likely to be elongate at least in part. Sporograph not generated.—ed.]

Beeli (1935): additionally—inamyloid; white in deposit.

Gilbert (1940 & 1941): [6/2/2] 13.2 - 15.6 × 6.5 - 10.0 μm, (L = 13.4 - 14.4 μm; L' = 13.9 μm; W = 8.1 μm; W' = 8.1 μm; Q = 1.56 - 2.18; Q = 1.66 - 1.81; Q' = 1.74), hyaline, smooth, inamyloid, ellipsoid to elongate, infrequently cylindric, usually at least somewhat adaxially flattened (per figure); apiculus sublateral and truncate conic (per figure); contents not recorded; white in deposit. [Note: Spore measurements are taken from the three drawings of (Gilbert 1940: tab. VI (fig. 6)) and three drawings of (Gilbert 1940: tab. VII (fig. 1)) that are in apparent lateral view.—ed.]

RET: [20/1/1] 7.8 - 13.6 (-15.1) × (5.5-) 6.0 - 8.8 (-9.0) µm, (L = 11.7 µm; W = 7.7 µm; Q = (1.30-) 1.39 - 1.65 (-1.78); Q = 1.53), hyaline, colorless, smooth, thin-walled, inamyloid, ellipsoid to elongate, ??; apiculus sublateral, ??; contents ??; color in deposit not recorded.

ecology

from protolog: Democratic Republic of Congo: Scattered. Terrestrial in dry forest of Gilbertiodendron (=Macrolobium) dewevrei (De Wildem.) Léon.

material examined

from protolog: CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF: PROV. EQUATEUR—Territoire Lisala - Binga [2°23'41" N/ 20°25'25" E, 361 m], iv-v.1927-1928 M. Goossens 611 (lectotype; BR), M. Goosens 695 (syntype, BR).

Beeli (1935): CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF: PROV. EQUATEUR—Territoire Lisala - Binga [2°23'41" N/ 20°25'25" E, 361 m], iv-v.1927-1928 M. Goossens 611 (lectotype; BR), M. Goosens 695 (syntype, BR).

Gilbert (1940 & 1941): CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF: PROV. EQUATEUR—Territoire Lisala - Binga [2°23'41" N/ 20°25'25" E, 361 m], iv-v.1927-1928 M. Goossens 611 (lectotype; BR), M. Goosens 695 (syntype, BR).

RET: ZAMBIA: COPPERBELT PROV.—off Kitwe-Ndola Rd., Greystone Farm, 14-24.xii.2000 David Arora 00-370 (RET 345-8, nrITS & nrLSU seq'd.; SFSU).

discussion

Evidence is growing that we have not resolved the meaning of A. calopus in the strictest sense. Tang et al. (2015) have put forward a description for A. calopus with an associated nrLSU sequence. Their macroscopic description does not match that of the species depicted on this page or that of the type. The nrLSU from the collection we have described does not match (genetic distance of 6%) that from the Shah-Smith collection examined by Tang et al. Tang's spore data is very similar to ours. However, limited available spore data from the original collection of A. calopus differs from both Tang's and ours. Moreover, Tang et al. report that the description of Pegler and Shah-Smith is based on collections of more than one species. Their data derives from the collection of Shah-Smith that they judge is most like A. calopus.

In eastern North America, we are finding a large number of taxa with graying, friable universal veil in section Vaginatae (e.g., A. rhacopus, A. texasorora, etc.). For some time, North American mycologists simply misapplied one name (A. ceciliae) to all the probably distinct taxa. In another large and heavily forested continent, why should we expect a simplicity that we do not find elsewhere? Why should we expect that, within Amanita the limited descriptions of early workers will present no problem to intepretation?

The evidence for a contrary view is mounting.

citations

—R. E. Tulloss

editors

RET

Information to support the viewer in reading the content of "technical" tabs can be found here.

Spore data for collections
provisionally identified as: Amanita calopus (Beeli) E.-J. Gilbert

Spore data sets and their composite

Each spore data set is intended to comprise a set of measurements from a single specimen made by a single observer; and explanations prepared for this site talk about specimen-observer pairs associated with each data set. Combining more data into a single data set is non-optimal because it obscures observer differences (which may be valuable for instructional purposes, for example) and may obscure instances in which a single collection inadvertently contains a mixture of taxa.

basidiospore definition

Spore Measurements by Collection

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