Entolomataceae - History and Constituent Genera

History and Constituent Genera

The family Entolomataceae was first defined by the Czech mycologists František Kotlaba and Zdenek Pouzar in 1972. Although the family as a whole is quite well defined, many different internal classifications of the Entolomataceae have been proposed. Please see List of Entolomataceae genera for a table of the main genera which have been placed in this family at one time or another.

The current view is that Entolomataceae with angular (polyhedral) spores should be classified in genus Entoloma, those with bumpy spores should be in Rhodocybe, and those with longitudinally ridged spores should be put in Clitopilus. This makes Entoloma an enormous genus, and in the past attempts have been made to split it up. In 1871, Paul Kummer created Eccilia, Leptonia and Nolanea to this end at the same time as Entoloma, but DNA studies show that these former groups are not natural (they are polyphyletic) and according to modern thinking they should not be accepted.

Furthermore, the study by Co-David et al. indicates that Rhodocybe and Clitopilus are not distinguishable as genera and need to be merged. Since the name Clitopilus has historical precedence, all the Rhodocybe species should in future be moved into Clitopilus.

Most surprising are the new genera Rhodocybella, Rhodogaster, and Richoniella, the first being cyphelloid and the other two gasteroid. They are rare and only contain a few species, but they are of great interest because although their body plan is superficially very different from that of the agarics which constitute the bulk of the family, recent studies have shown that they are closely related. The modern trend is even to move them into the same genera as the related agarics.