Amanita pudica - central Africa - photo by David Arora Amanita basii and skillet of that species, boletes, and native herbs - photo by Ricardo GarcĂ­a Sandoval

Amanita
Studies
Site News

as of
26 Oct. 2009


Changes in the site:

We are sorry to report that due to a failure of our ISP's back-up system with regard to this particular page, we have lost one year's data on changes to this site.  Changes between 15.vi.2007 and 8.vi.2008 are apparently unrecoverable.

[ back to "Site news" ]

2009: 26.x, 19-25.x, 13.x, 1-11.x, 27-29.ix, 17.vii, 21-30.v, 9.v, 2.v, 18-24.iv, 11.iv, 29-30.iii, 15-23.iii, 2-10.iii, 19-28.ii, 4.ii, 20-27.i, 7-19.i

2008: 7.xi.2008, 20.ix.2008, 15-27.viii, 9.viii, 5.viii, 26.vii, 21.vii, 11-12.vii, 1-10.vii, catch-up.

2006: 25-27.viiv2005: 13-20.vii.

What is the site news page? On this page we communicate our changes to the Amanita Studies site. A visitor familiar with the site can quickly ascertain what has changed since his/her last visit by viewing this page. Items will be added at the top of this page and, after one year in most cases, deleted from the bottom of the page.

PLEASE!  DON'T BE SATISFIED WITH A SITE THAT ISN'T WORKING PROPERLY.
HELP US MAINTAIN THE AMANITA STUDIES SITE & ITS MORE THAN 600 PAGES:
PLEASE, INFORM US OF UNWORKING LINKS, PROBLEM IMAGES, ETC.
NEED INFORMATION ON AN AMANITA SPECIES YOU CAN'T FIND IN OUR PAGES? 
PLEASE, TELL US WHAT YOU NEED.

We will strive to cover (in brief) nomenclatorial changes and descriptions of new taxa on this page and to provide references in this site's bibliography(ies).

Amanita gracilior Amanita codinae Amanita ameghinoi


26.x.2009: All species pages have been revised to the new standard format.

WARNING: There are still a half dozen or so errors that have not been corrected in the sect. Caesareae PDF document.  We will get to this problem as soon as we can.

19-25.x.2009: Species pages updated: Amanita breckonii, A. dulciarii, A. franchetii, A. fulva, A. kwangsiensis, A. loosii, A. polypyramis, A. populiphila, A. virgineoides and A. virosaNew technical description added: Amanita sororcula.  The visual key to the sections of Amanita has been updated to include sect. Caesareae  The editors are very pleased to be able to use photographs of N. K. Zeng of Hainan Prov., China; X. H. Wang of Yunnan Prov., China; and Christophe Robin, France.  All species having epithets beginning with "a" through "x" have been revised to the new standard format.

13.x.2009: All species having epithets beginning with "a" through "o" have been revised to the new standard format. We will break for the 2009 NEMF in Cape Cod on 15 October 2009.

1-11.x.2009: A large set of illustrations of Australian species of Amanita have been received from Dr. Elaine Davison and Katrina Symes.  We are very grateful to both of them.  These illustrations will soon begin to appear on relevant species pages.  Species updated: Amanita ananaeceps, A. austroviridis, A. eucalypti, A. ochroterrea, A. thiersii, and A. vestita.  All species having epithets beginning with "c" through "n" have been revised to the new standard format.  Species added: Amanita arenicola O. K. Mill. & D. J. Lodge.  Species page added: Amanita dulciarii Tulloss nom. prov.

27-29.ix.2009: Species updated: Amanita caesarea, A. caesareoides, A. calyptroderma, A. ochroterrea, A. populiphila, and all species having epithets beginning with "a" through "b." Change of provisional name: The epithet "albosorora" is replaced by "cremeosorora."

A recent review of this site in Fungi stated that it was poorly designed logically. I think that our inability to rapidly convert all our web pages to our new format (with many additional relevant links on each species page) may be one cause of this criticism. Therefore, we are going to make every effort to bring all of our species pages to a common format.

Remember that you can access a species using pictures in regional checklists. When you know the spelling of a species name, you can find the occurrences of that name using the search function on our home page. When you know the section in which the species belongs, you can use the sectional lists that are accessible from our home page. For our users who are uncertain about the definitions of the sections of Amanita, we will be adding a document to this site that will explain determination of specimens to section without use of a microscope. It is easier for some material than others, of course. The advantage of making sectional divisions part of the lingo of parataxonomists interested in the present genus seems something that is very worthwhile doing...at the very least because the number of amanitologists in the world is very, very small.

17.vii.2009: Species updated: Amanita basii.

21-30.v.2009: Species updated: Amanita armeniaca, A. citrina var. grisea, A. floridana, A. nigrescens, and A. taiepa.  The world key for Caesareae has been updated by the addition of an inadvertently omitted species -- A. tuza. A collaboration to initiate work on a world key for approximately 110 species of sect. Amanita has been begun. It is hoped that a draft can be on-line before the end of 2009.

9.v.2009: Species updated: Amanita ristichii and A. salmonescens.

2.v.2009: Species updated: Amanita pantherina.

18-24.iv.2009: Species updated: Amanita luteofusca, A. pantherina var. pantherinoides, A. smithiana, and A. subrecutita.

11.iv.2009: Species updated: Amanita brunneolocularis. Species added: Amanita farinosa sensu Thiers added to sect. Amanita.

29-30.iii.2009: Species updated: Amanita novinupta, A. protecta, and A. velosa.  We've completed the updating of format and the correcting of typos and other errors in all species of sect. Caesareae having epithets with initials "J" through "Z" inclusive.

15-23.iii.2009: Species updated: Amanita brunneiphylla, A. foetens, A. lutescens, A. microlepis, A. mumura, A. ochroterrea, A. pareparina, A. pelioma, A. praelongispora, A. pyramidiferina, and A. thiersii.  We've completed the updating of format and the correcting of typos and other errors in all species of sect. Lepidella having epithets with initials "A" through "Z" inclusive.  We've completed the updating of format and the correcting of typos and other errors in all species of sect. Caesareae having epithets with initials "M" through "Z" inclusive.

2-10.iii.2009: Species updated: Amanita bresadolana, A. cylindrispora, A. crassa, A. daucipes, A. elongatispora, A. eriophora, A. gracilienta, A. hiltonii, Amanita muscaria subsp. flavivolvata, A. muscaria var. muscariaSpecies added: Amanita hayalyuy (recently described from the state of Chiapas, Mexico), Amanita viscidolutea recently described from Brazil.  We've completed the updating of format and the correcting of typos and other errors in all species of sect. Lepidella having epithets with initials "A" through "H" inclusive.

19-28.ii.2009: Updated species: Amanita alliacea, A. allostraminea, A. ameghinoi, A. ananaecipitoides, A. angustispora, A. atkinsoniana, A. basibulbosa, A. boudieri var. beillei, A. brunneiphylla, A. canescens, A. chlorinosma, A. cinereoconia, A. cinereopannosa, A. diemii, A. gymnopus, and A. miculifera.  Technical description added for A. miculifera.

4.ii.2009: Ten broken links were located on the Amanta Studies site. These have been re-established. Updated species: Amanita crassiconus, A. flavoconia, A. subnudipes, & A. subvaginata.

20-27.i.2009: Updated species: Amanita morrisii, A. nothofagi, A. novinupta, and A. rubescens.  To avoid writing all the species names, today we've completed the updating of format and correcting of typos and other errors in all species of sect. Validae having epithets with initials "A" through "Z" inclusive.  Inauguration of 44th U.S. president, Barak Hussein Obama, occurred on 20 January 2009.

7-19.i.2009: Updated species: Amanita constricta, A. farinacea, A. flavipes, A. nehuta, A. orsonii, A. pakistanica, A. pekeoides, A. subvaginata, and A. wellsii.  "Technical detail" PDFs have been added for A. constricta, A. flavipes, A. orsonii, A. pakistanica, and A. pekeoides. Illustrations have yet to be added to the PDFs that support the last four species.

7.xi.2008: Updated species: Amanita nivalis.

20.ix.2008: Updated species: Amanita hongoi, A. kotohiraensis, and A. miculifera.

15-27.viii.2008: Added species: Amanita cruzii and A. occidentalis.
Updated species: Amanita calyptroderma, A. olivaceogrisea, A. pantherina var. pantherinoides, A. roseitincta, and A. umbrinidisca.

Provisional names: At the 2008 MSA meeting at Penn State Univ., Dr. Paul Carroll mentioned to RET the need for posting useful provisional names with some sort of usable definition even if they cannot yet be published for some reason.  At the same Conference Dr. Tom Bruns mentioned in a presentation that with a flood of sequences expected to be generated from new diversity sampling protocols and highly automated new sequencing equipment, the need for taxonomists is even greater than was previously appreciated.  Providing names to go with sequences will be more and more critical in the view of several of the conference's speakers.

We have hesitated in placing provisional names on the site in the past, but had to respond to other sites who began to use provisional names of one or the other of our editors. Perhaps, now is the time to admit that some "numbered" taxa actually have a proposed name that has been floated here or there in public (although we have often hidden that name behind its "number").
Starting in the next weeks, we will begin to add those provisional names that we believe have sufficient taxonomic support to be published and survive as "good names" in the future. The first step, as for any name in the lists on this site, will be to have the provisional names appear in sectional lists. Until a text is repaired for such a name we can provide a link to whatever information there may be in one of the checklists (if any) in which at least some useful, ID-supporting information is available.

The first set of provisional names to be added are proposed to belong to subgenus Amanita and will be provided HERE as they appear in sectional lists:


Code cleaning now is complete for the Amanita sect. Amanita and sect. Vaginatae species lists.

9.viii.2008: As of this date all species pages subordinate to the list for Amanita sect. Phalloideae have been updated to the current style.

5.viii.2008: The species pages that are subordinate to the list for Amanita sect. Phalloideae have been update for all species eptithets except those beginning with the letters "s" through "v."

26.vii.2008: The species pages that are subordinate to the list for Amanita sect. Phalloideae have been updated for species eptithets beginning with the letters "a" through "f."

21.vii.2008: Added taxa: Amanita robusta Bouriquet non Beeli and Amanita robusta var. spinosa Bouriquet have long been on the subsaharan checklist, but never in the alphabetic list of taxa for section Lepidella this has been remedied. As a result, the number of taxa listed on the site goes to 550. Today all links from the subsaharan checklist will lead to pages in the new standard format. The next sectional list to have its code thoroughly cleaned up will be the list for section Lepidella. [Progress on the sect. Caesareae list has slowed due to the visit of RET's grandchildren.]

11-12.vii.2008: Updated page: .  The list page for Amanita sect. Validae has been revised thoroughly as part of our project to abandon WYSIWYG HTML editors in favor of hand coding.  Those of you with cable or satellite connections will probably not see much difference. The download time of the page will be shortened for those having copper connections. Everybody will have a cleaner looking page. For the developers, the code is much, much cleaner and, hence, easier to maintain.

All species of the sect. Caesareae list starting with the letters "a" through "p," have been updated.

1-10.vii.2008: Mary Tulloss (Roosevelt) has begun to work on cleaning up and standardizing species pages.  Thanks, Mary!  She is beginning with the pages that used to depend from the sect. Vaginatae list, but now depend from the new sect. Caesareae list.  Hopefully, all these pages will soon have links returning them to the correct list page.

Updated page: Amanita afrospinosa, A. alboflavescens, A. ameghinoi, A. coacta, A. flavescens, A. flavorubens, A. magniverrucata, A. prairiicola, A. sinicoflava, A. subnudipes, A. volvata, all species of the sect. Caesareae list starting with the letters "a" through "h," and all species of the sect. Validae list starting with the letters "a" through "e."

Draft technical descriptions [lacking microscopic illustrations] were added for A. flavescens and A. subnudipes.

The New Jersey Pine Barrens checklist/picturebook was updated and a broken link was fixed.  Material has been added to the bibliography.

Catch-up on the news (June, 2008):  The most significant change during this period was the division of Amanita sect. Vaginatae sensu Corner and Bas into sects. Vaginatae and Caesareae (following, for example, the usage of Yang in recent years.)  This led to preparation of draft review of sect. Caesareae that is now posted on this site, a world key for the section, and the designation of some draft stirpes to facilitate development of bottom up study of the section.
[ download Caesareae document ]

The genera Amarrendia and Torrendia have been included in our site list for sect. Caesareae.  The two genera are also discussed in the above-mentioned draft document.

Consequently, a sectional list for sect. Caesareae had to be segregated from the sectional list for sect. Vaginatae.  This resulted in many links having to be altered.  There may still be some broken link problems as a result.  Please report them.  Many checklists do not yet reflect the separation of sections.  The first checklist to get our attention on this matter is the list for sub-Saharan Africa.

During examination of its type collection, the proposed species Amanita cystidiosa was discovered to be a lepiotoid species and must be excluded from Amanita.  It's stipe context is not acrophysalidic.  It's lamella trama is not bilateral.  It's spores are dextrinoid.  As a result, there are still no known taxa in Amanita which present cystidia of any type on the lamellae.

Type studies and other research has begun with a view to finding an appropriate way to include information on the genus Limacella into this site...thus broadening the site to deal with the Amanitaceae more completely.

Among new amanitas added to the list during "the period of lost news" (that RET can remember) was A. lippiae in sect. Amanita.

(t.b.d.)

HISTORIC ITEMS

25-27 July 2006: Added taxa: Amanita cinnamomescens and A. cokeriana. Deleted taxon: Amanita decipiens. New pages: Amanita cinnamomescens, A. javanica, and A. virosa (our 500th species page for the Amanita Studies site). Updated pages: Amanita bisporigera, A. daucipes, A. exitialis, A. flavorubens, A. gracilior, A. morrisii, A. novinupta, A. orsonii, A. rubescens, A. rubescens var. alba, A. rubescens var. congolensis, A. subjunquillea, and A. verna.

May 2006: WELCOME BACK to Lindsay Possiel!  Lindsay is working with us for the third straight summer doing the great job she always does!  We are now well past the major milestone of 400 species covered at levels 1 or 2.

13-20 July 2005: Hats off to Lindsay Possiel, who is working with RET again this summer.  Thanks to Lindsay's hard work, we have passed the major milestone of 300 pages dedicated to individual taxa of Amanita.

[ Return to Amanita Home Page ]


Last change: 26 October 2009.
This page is maintained by R. E. Tulloss.
Development support for this site provided by Lindsay Possiel during summers of 2004, 2005, and 2006.