Protoacia delicata

Protoacia delicata Spirin & V. Malysheva 2019, in Spirin et al., Nordic Journal of Botany, 37, 8 (2019).

Etymology: Delicatus (Lat., adj.) = delicate.

Diagnosis: Basidiocarps semitranslucent, effused, gelatinous, whitish or watery greyish, adnate; hymenophore hydnoid, spines more or less regularly arranged, acute, 0.2–0.8 mm long, 5–6 per mm; subiculum whitish or watery greyish, 0.05–0.2 mm thick, drying to vernicose, partly detaching crust; margin sharply delimited; mineral inclusions absent.

Hyphal structure monomitic; hyphae clamped, more or less uniform, very thin-walled, easily collapsing, in spines subparallel, 2–3.5 μm in diam. Cystidia absent; hyphidia abundant, simple to branched, 1–3 μm in diam. at the apical part. Basidia 4-celled, (7.3–) 7.7–10.7 (–11.0) × (5.9–) 6.2– 8.8 (–8.9) μm (n = 31/3), openly arranged; enucleate stalk up to 28 × 3 μm; sterigmata up to 8–15 × 2–3 μm. Basidiospores broadly ellipsoid to subglobose, rarely broadly ovoid, (4.7–) 4.8–6.8 (–7.0) × 4.1–5.8 (–5.9) μm (n = 120/4), L = 5.30– 5.96, W = 4.72–5.11, Q = 1.10–1.19.

Index Fungorum Number: IF829027

Figure 1. Basidiocarps: (a) Gelacantha pura (LE 254018); (b) Hydrophana sphaerospora (Spirin 11779); (c) Protoacia delicata (Nordén 9568); (d) Protodontia subgelatinosa (Spirin 11644). Scale bar = 10 mm. (Photos: Spirin et al., 2019)