80i compound light microscope

All specimens were preliminarily grouped with respect to their macromorphological characteristics, including hymenophore types, aculei length, and pore size. Subsequently, micromorphological features, including cystidia types and basidiospore size, were observed using one to six well-preserved specimens of each group. Pieces of dried specimens were mounted in 5% KOH. Observations were performed under a Nikon 80i compound light microscope (Nikon, Tokyo, Japan) at 400× to 1,000× magnification. For each specimen, 20 basidia and 30 basidiospores were measured when possible. Basidiospore dimensions were expressed as the range of minimum to maximum length and width. “Q” refers to the average length to width ratio of basidiospores.

Morphological observations of the new species were performed as described by Schubert et al. (2007) (link). The new species were cultured on PDA, malt extract agar (MEA; Oxoid), oatmeal agar (OA; Difco), and synthetic nutrient-poor agar (SNA; KH₂PO₄ 1 g, KNO₃ 1 g, MgSO₄7H₂O 5 g, KCl 0.5 g, glucose 0.2 g, saccharose 0.2 g, and Bacto agar 20 g/L) for 14 d at 25 °C in the dark for description of cultural characteristics. The diameters of the colonies were measured using ImageJ (Schneider et al. 2012 (link)). The color of the surface and reverse side of the colonies was described using the Methuen Handbook of Colour (Kornerup and Wanscher 1978 ). For observing microscopic features, such as conidial structures, the representative strains were cultured on SNA at 25 °C in the dark from 7 d to 14 d. Observations were made using a Nikon 80i compound light microscope (Nikon, Tokyo, Japan), and at least 30 measurements were collected per strain using ImageJ (Schneider et al. 2012 (link)) at 400× magnification.