Abstract
Daedaleopsis tricolor and D. confragosa were formerly treated either as separate species or as conspecific. D. tricolor may be recognised by the presence of a lamellate hymenophore and mostly dark pileus surface with small network of grains, but its separate status is not supported by its micromorphology.
Occurrence of intermediate forms contributes to uncertainty in species delimitation. Although this problem has been known for many years, no study has yet been aimed at a thorough study of both morphological and molecular data.
In the present study, we analysed sequences of ITS rDNA, RPB2 and TEF of several typical specimens of D. tricolor and D. confragosa sampled in the Czech Republic in recent years, two specimens of the supposedly closely related D. septentrionalis, and available sequences from GenBank. Our data show that no studied DNA region supports separation of D. tricolor and D. confragosa as distinct species and that D. septentrionalis is supported as a distinct species according to the ITS rDNA and RPB2 genes.
We therefore incline to treat D. tricolor as a variety of D. confragosa. Thorough revision of all species hitherto described in Daedaleopsis including Asian species of uncertain identity is recommended.