A taxonomic investigation of Mycena of Sao Tome and Principe

Knowledge of the diversity of the fungi from the Gulf of Guinea islands is very limited due to the fact that until recently, there have been no biotic surveys of the mycota of the region. In April o f2006 and 2008, expeditions were led to document the diversity of plants, amphibians, marine invertebrates and macrofungi on the West African islands of Sao Tome and Principe. This project aims to further document the diversity of macrofungi on the island by focusing on 24 mycenoid fungi collected from the expedition. Nineteen distinct species are recognized, of which nine are new to science. The other ten species are new distribution records for the islands. These data suggest that there is a high level of endemism in the saprotrophic macrofungi of ST&P. Molecular sequence data indicate that the currently accepted infrageneric classification of Mycena recognizes many non-monophyletic groups and is in need of revision.