''Cercopemyces'' is a

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the n ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

allied to '' Ripartitella'' and not clearly aligned with well characterized mushroom

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

. The genus contains four species, one known from western and another, previously known as ''Ripartitella ponderosa'' or ''Cystoderma ponderosa'', from eastern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, a third from

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, and a fourth species from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. ''Ceropemyces'' grow in arid regions and resemble saprophytic ''

Amanita The genus ''Amanita'' contains about 600 species of agarics, including some of the most toxic known mushrooms found worldwide, as well as some well-regarded Edible mushroom, edible species (and many species of unknown edibility). The genus is re ...

'' that are sometimes classified as ''

Saproamanita The genus ''Saproamanita'' contains about 24 species of agarics and is one of six genera in the family Amanitaceae, of which the similar ''Amanita'' is also a member. ''Saproamanita'' differs from ''Amanita'' in that its species are saprophytic ...

'' and that also grow in arid regions. The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

grows near

mountain mahogany ''Cercocarpus'', commonly known as mountain mahogany, is a small genus of at least nine species of nitrogen-fixing flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native to the western United States and northern Mexico, where they grow i ...

Etymology

The name ''Ceropemyces'' was derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

name for mischievous forest creatures, the

Cercopes In Greek mythology, the Cercopes (, plural of Κέρκωψ, from κέρκος (''n''.) ''kerkos'' "tail") were mischievous forest creatures who lived in Thermopylae or on Euboea but roamed the world and might turn up anywhere mischief was afoo ...

, and -' (fungus).

Species

* '' Cercopemyces crocodilinus'' * '' Cercopemyces ponderosus'' * '' Cercopemyces rickenii'' * '' Cercopemyces messii''

References

Enigmatic Agaricales taxa Agaricales genera {{Agaricales-stub

Etymology

Species

See also

References