Panellus pusillus

Little Ping-pong Bat at Cotter River, ACT

Panellus pusillus at Cotter River, ACT - 9 Jul 2016
Panellus pusillus at Cotter River, ACT - 9 Jul 2016
Panellus pusillus at Cotter River, ACT - 9 Jul 2016
Panellus pusillus at Cotter River, ACT - 9 Jul 2016
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Identification history

Panellus pusillus 15 Jul 2016 Heino
Panellus pusillus 15 Jul 2016 KenT

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Significant sighting

15 Jul 2016

Ken - you are really expanding ACT's fungi records with your magnificent photos. This is another first ACT record (i.e. there are no other ACT records in the Atlas of Living Australia

User's notes

Count of fruit bodies on an old decaying fallen tree

6 comments

Heino wrote:
   16 Jul 2016
Michael, I agree with your praise for Ken's photos and for his additions to the records of fungi in the ACT. However, be wary of cryptogamic first records for the ACT on the basis of information from the Atlas of Living Australia. The ALA has dragged in information from a variety of sources and may, for a given cryptogamic species, contain records under synonyms. Panellus pusillus has been known as Dictyopanus pusillus (and you may still see it referred to it by that name). ALA has records under both names, including an ACT one under the latter.
   16 Jul 2016
Awesome pic!
   16 Jul 2016
Thanks Heino I'll make a check for synonyms in future
KenT wrote:
   17 Jul 2016
Thanks Ryu, fortunately these subjects don’t move unless the wind is really strong (and I’m usually long gone by then – too much standing dead timber in the bush since the fires). For fungi photos my camera is always on a tripod (a 32 yr old Benbo) except when it is sitting directly on the ground.
KenT wrote:
   17 Jul 2016
Michael, I’m not sure if you know what you are in for in checking for synonyms with these organisms. For Panellus pusillus, Species Fungorum gives a full synonymy of 33 names including subspecies and varieties etc (http:// www.speciesfungorum.org/GSD/GSDspecies.asp?RecordID=319152), Mycobank has 13 synonyms listed (http://www.mycobank.org/name/Panellus%20pusillus&Lang=Eng) as has the Royal Botanic Garden Melbourne (http://data.rbg.vic.gov.au/cat/fungicatalogue/name/900) although it gives the current name as Dictyopanus pusillus. It could be worse, for example Species Fungorum has a full synonymy for Trametes versicolor of 72 names. When I remember I tend to use Species Fungorum to look up the current name but my reasons are simply historical because before the internet, organisations such as CABI and RBG Kew and their publications were the main source of anything resembling a fungal taxonomic database and all this has morphed into Species Fungorum. I think Mycobank had its basis in the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures of the Netherlands. The American USDA also have their own online database. One of the problems I have is trying to figure out what the current name should be, the different databases run by different authorities and experts sometimes disagree. I don’t know what the Atlas of Living Australia does to determine the current name or work out what the synonyms are. It might be worth talking to the ALA people to see what the best approach is.
Heino wrote:
   18 Jul 2016
On the subject of wariness with ALA: ALA draws in information from a variety of sources, which may be inconsistent. I put Hyphodontia nudiseta into a search a few minutes ago. ALA gave me information from two sources. According to one, given as AusFungi, there is one Australian record from Canberra (with no mention of Adelaide, the place where the type specimen was collected, the details published in 1963). According to the other source, Catalogue of Life: 2012 Annual Checklist, this species is "Not recorded from Australia". In this instance, you can at least find out that the species is recorded from Australia, by checking both sources cited by ALA. However, I have come across the odd example or two where there is a print record of a species in Australia, but no electronic record and with ALA than saying only "Not recorded in Australia".

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Location information

Sighting information

  • 101 - 1,000 Abundance
  • 9 Jul 2016 11:23 AM Recorded on
  • KenT Recorded by

Species information

  • Panellus pusillus Scientific name
  • Little Ping-pong Bat Common name
  • Not Sensitive
  • Local native
  • Non-Invasive
  • Up to 929.18m Recorded at altitude
  • Machine learning
  • Synonyms

    Dictyopanus pusillus
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