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Species Information
Summary: Outstanding features are the small size, the white cup with (microscopically) branched septate clamp-bearing hyphae, and the yellowish to chestnut brown eggs that microscopically have a double cortex. The description is from Brodie except where noted.
It is reported from BC, and also from Chile, northern Europe including United Kingdom and Sweden, and Australia, (Brodie). It is found in Belgium and reported from France and Switzerland, (Palmer). It occurs in Britain/Ireland (Buczacki).
Nest: up to 0.15cm wide, spherical, often confluent, with frail ephemeral peridia [cups] that are white or often slightly yellowish, thin, and smooth, (Brodie), 0.02-0.15cm, more or less spherical, stemless, "initially covered with thin white-yellowish scurfy membrane" which ruptures to reveal < 15 peridioles ["eggs"], (Buczacki)
Microscopic: spores 7.5 x 5 microns, ovoid, colorless; also another kind of spore from metamorphosed basidia 12 x 7 microns, pear-shaped to elliptic or round, with a thick wall; cortex of egg has two layers: the outer is loosely woven and of a yellow color, the inner is thicker and red-brown, the layers of the cortex appearing to have a labyrinthiform design, (Brodie), spores 6-9 x 5-6.5 microns, broadly elliptic, smooth, non-amyloid, white, (Buczacki)
Habitat / Range
decaying leaves of Juncus effusus, decaying grass culms, hardwood or coniferous wood (logs, branches, twigs or chips, from apparently sound to severely decayed, usually barkless, mainly on underside in contact with soil or at the junction between soil and wood), charcoal (once), dead Rubus canes, Vaccinium debris, Pteridium debris, moss, rabbit or sheep dung, generally developing in acidic damp conditions, collected in every month except January and February, (Palmer for United Kingdom), on rotting wood and other plant debris in wet acidic habitats, "often on debris of rushes and sedges, also on old herbivore dung"; in small to large trooping or +/- fused groups; summer to fall, (Buczacki)
Similar Species
Mycocalia duriaeana (Tul.) J.T. Palmer, of the east coast of North America, Czechoslovakia, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Algeria, and Australia, has smaller eggs that are dark blood red to almost black, the outer layer of cortex is firmer and thinner than the inner, the center of the egg seldom becomes sunken when dry, and spores are broader, (Brodie).
