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Here we present the results of taxonomic and systematic study of the rare truffle-forming genera Destuntzia and Kjeldsenia . Truffle-forming fungi are difficult to study due to their reduced morphological features and their cryptic, hypogeous fruiting habits. The rare occurrence of Destuntzia and Kjeldsenia further compounds these difficulties due to the lack of adequate material for study. Recent forays in North Carolina and Tennessee recovered new specimens of another rarely collected fungus, Octaviania purpurea . Morphological and phylogenetic analysis revealed that Octaviania purpurea is a member of the genus Destuntzia , and this led us to reevaluate the taxonomic status and systematic relationships of other Destuntzia species. We performed a multilocus phylogenetic analysis of Destuntzia specimens deposited in public fungaria, including all available type material, and environmental sequences from animal scat and soil. Our analyses indicate that Destuntzia is a member of the family Claustulaceae within the order Phallales and is a close relative of Kjeldsenia . Results of our phylogenetic analysis infer that three species originally described in the genus Destuntzia are members of the genus Kjeldsenia . We propose three new combinations in Kjeldsenia to accommodate these species as well as a new combination in Destuntzia to accommodate Octaviania purpurea . We also describe a new genus in Claustulaceae, Hosakaea , to accommodate a closely affiliated species, Octaviania violascens . Finally, we transfer the genus Destunzia into the family Claustulaceae and emend the description of the family. The newly proposed combinations in Destuntzia and Kjeldsenia significantly expand the known geographic ranges of both genera. The data from metabarcode analysis of scat and soil also reveal several additional undescribed species that expand these ranges well beyond those suggested by basidiomata collections. Systematic placement of Destuntzia in the saprotrophic order Phallales suggests that this genus is not ectomycorrhizal, and the ecological implications of this systematic revision are discussed.

Following a disturbance, dispersal shapes community composition as well as ecosystem structure and function. For fungi, dispersal is often wind or mammal facilitated, but it is unclear whether these pathways are complementary or redundant in the taxa they disperse and the ecosystem functions they provide. Here, we compare the diversity and morphology of fungi dispersed by wind and three rodent species in recently harvested forests using a combination of microscopy and Illumina sequencing. We demonstrate that fungal communities dispersed by wind and small mammals differ in richness and composition. Most wind-dispersed fungi are wood saprotrophs, litter saprotrophs, and plant pathogens, whereas fungi dispersed in mammal scat are primarily mycorrhizal, soil saprotrophs, and unspecified saprotrophs. We note substantial dispersal of truffles and agaricoid mushrooms by small mammals, and dispersal of agaricoid mushrooms, crusts, and polypores by wind. In addition, we find mammal-dispersed spores are larger than wind-dispersed spores. Our findings suggest that wind- and small-mammal-facilitated dispersal are complementary processes and highlight the role of small mammals in dispersing mycorrhizal fungi, particularly following disturbances such as timber harvest., (© 2023 The Ecological Society of America.)

Animals are often the primary dispersers of seeds and fungal spores. Specialist species that consume fruits or fungal fruiting bodies (sporocarps) as their main food source are thought to play a more important role in dispersal networks compared to generalist species. However, dispersal networks are often based on occurrence data, overlooking the influence of animal abundance and dispersal effectiveness on network interactions. Using rodent-mycorrhizal fungi networks, we determined how diet specialization and abundance influence the role of rodent species in dispersing fungal spores in temperate forests of northern New Hampshire, USA. We tracked the interactions of five rodent species and 34 fungal taxa over a 3-yr period across hardwood, mixed, and softwood forest stands. We accounted for fluctuations in rodent abundance and differences in the number of spores dispersed in rodent scat. Myodes gapperi, a fungal specialist, dispersed a more diverse spore community than rodent generalists and was consistently the most important disperser in forest types with high fungal availability. Nevertheless, during years when generalist species such as Tamias striatus and Peromyscus maniculatus reached high abundance, their relative importance (species strength) in networks approached or even surpassed that of M. gapperi, particularly in forest types where M. gapperi was less common and fungal availability was low. Increased numbers of generalists enhanced network interaction diversity and the number of fungal taxa dispersed, the timing of which was coincident with seedling establishment following masting, a stage when inoculation by mycorrhizal fungi is critical for growth and survival. Our findings suggest that although specialists play key roles in dispersing mycorrhizal fungal spores, generalists play a heretofore underappreciated role., (© 2020 by the Ecological Society of America.)