Metuloidea murashkinskyi
Description
Metuloidea murashkinskyi is a species of tooth fungus in the family Steccherinaceae. It is a white rot mushroom that feeds on the deadwood of deciduous trees. It is found in Europe and Asia, where it causes white rot on the wood of deciduous trees.
Mushroom Identification
Fruit Bodies
Cap-like but adhere firmly to the substrate without a stipe, and measure 5–14 cm (2.0–5.5 in) by 10–50 cm (4–20 in) by 1–5 mm thick. They have a leathery texture when fresh, but become fragile when dry. The cap surface is initially tomentose, later becoming smooth and zonate with an uneven surface and a cinnamon-brown color.
Spores
The spore-bearing surface, or hymenium, is hydnoid—that is, bearing structures resembling small conical spines measuring 0.5–5 mm long. These spines are packed together quite densely, about 4 to 6 per millimeter, and have a smoke-brown color. In some instances, the spines fuse to form irregular pores numbering 4–5 per millimeter.
Odor
Fruit bodies have a distinctive spicy odor that lingers even in dried herbarium specimens. This odor is characteristic of the genus Metuloidea.
Microscopic Features
M. murashkinskyi has a dimitic hyphal structure with thick-walled sclerified generative hyphae that are 5–7 μm. The spores are shaped like short cylinders, and typically measure 3.6–4.5 by 2.8–2.3 μm.
History
The fungus was first described in 1931 by American mycologist Edward Angus Burt as Hydnum murashkinskyi. He named it after professor K.E. Murashkinsky of the Siberian Agricultural Academy, who collected the type specimens in 1928 and sent them to Burt for identification.
The species was later transferred to the genera Mycoleptodon by Albert Pilát in 1934, Steccherinum by Rudolph Arnold Maas Geesteranus in 1962, and Irpex by Heikki Kotiranda & Reima Saarenoksa in 2002. Miettinen & Spirin transferred it to the newly-circumscribed genus Metuloidea in 2016.
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: atsushi_nakajima_cirque (CC BY 4.0)
Photo 2 - Author: atsushi_nakajima_cirque (CC BY 4.0)
Photo 3 - Author: ninacourlee (CC BY 4.0)
