Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 March 2023 | 15(3): 22920–22923

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8101.15.3.22920-22923

#8101 | Received 13 July 2022 | Final received 10 February 2023 | Finally accepted 01 March 2023

New distribution record of Roridomyces cf. phyllostachydis (Agaricales: Mycenaceae), a bioluminescent fungus from Namdapha National Park, Arunachal Pradesh, India

Arijit Dutta¹, Sourav Gupta², Jayanta K. Roy³& M. Firoz Ahmed⁴

^1,2,3,4Aaranyak, 13, Tayab Ali Byelane, Bishnu Rabha Path, Guwahati, Assam 781028, India.

²Department of Life Science and Bioinformatics, Assam University, Diphu Campus, Karbi Anglong, Assam 782460, India.

¹arijitdutta1997@gmail.com, ²souravassamwild@gmail.com (corresponding author), ³roy.jayantakumar47@gmail.com, ⁴mfa.aaranyak@gmail.com

Editor: K.R. Sridhar, Mangalore University, Mangalore, India. Date of publication: 26 March 2023 (online & print)

Citation: Dutta, A., S. Gupta, J.K. Roy & M.F. Ahmed (2023). New distribution record of Roridomyces cf. phyllostachydis (Agaricales: Mycenaceae), a bioluminescent fungus from Namdapha National Park, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 15(3): 22920–22923. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8101.15.3.22920-22923

Copyright: © Dutta et al. 2023. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

Funding: Re-wild, Aaranyak, and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Acknowledgements: We are thankful to Re-Wild for funding a survey of ‘Lost Species’, the Namdapha Flying Squirrel which led to this observation in the field . We sincerely thank Samantha C. Karunarathna for providing valuable information for the identification of the species. We are grateful to the Forest Department, Arunachal Pradesh for their necessary permission (No: CWL/Gen/173/2018-19/Pt.IX/NG/ 393-401) and support. We sincerely thank our field assistants Mr. Aphu Yoha Yobin for their guidance in the field.

Bioluminescence is the biochemical reaction in living organisms where chemical energy from a complex compound such as luciferin is converted to light energy through oxidation under the action of luciferase which acts as a catalytic enzyme (Pandey & Sharon 2017). The phenomenon of bioluminescence is randomly reported across 17 phyla and more than 700 genera, both in marine and terrestrial environments (Lee 2015). Bioluminescence in fungi has been observed globally across several species belonging to four distinct monophyletic lineages, namely, Armillaria (Fr.) Staude, Mycenacae Overeem, the Lucipentes lineage of Mycena (Pers.) Roussel s.l., and a lineage consisting of Omphalotus Fayod & Neonothopanus R.H.Petersen & Krisai (Matheny et al. 2006; Desjardin et al. 2008, 2010, 2016; Vydryakova et al. 2011; Aravindakshan et al. 2012; Chew et al. 2013, 2015; Shih et al. 2014; Mihail 2015; Cortés-Pérez et al. 2019).

Being a biodiversity hotspot, India also hosts a variety of fungal species but the documentation on bioluminescent fungi is still deficient. Over the past few years, there have been a few reports on bioluminescence from fungi such as Nothopanus eugrammus and Omphalotus olearius (Vrinda et al. 1999), followed by a unique taxon from Kerala, Mycena deeptha (Aravindakshan & Manimohan 2014) & Armillaria mellea (Patil & Yadav 2022). Recently, a new species of bioluminescent fungi- Roridomyces cf. phyllostachydis (Karunarathna et al. 2020) has been described from Meghalaya (Mawlynnong in East Khasi Hills & Krang Shuri, West Jaintia Hills) respectively at altitude 560 m and 1021 m (Figure 1). In this article, we report the new distribution of Roridomyces cf. phyllostachydis (Agaricales, Mycenaceae) from Kamala Valley Beat (27.462036°N, 96.426933°E, altitude, 611 m) in Namdapha National Park (NNP) (Figure 1), which is the easternmost national park, located in Changlang District of Arunachal Pradesh.

On 7 April 2022 around 19:35 hours, while conducting a nocturnal survey as a part of a study on small mammals, we opportunistically encountered a small glowing mass of Roridomyces cf. phyllostachydis by the side of the road on a wet muddy substratum. On further inspection, we noticed fresh fruiting bodies of the mushroom growing out, from the edge of a fragmented piece of dead, rotten bamboo belonging to the genus Phyllostachys, embedded in the soil. We were unable to determine the exact species of the host bamboo from the small fragmented piece. The surroundings were characterized by riparian vegetation consisting of short grasses, scattered with pebbles and ephemeral pools. On encountering the fungal species, we noted down the macro-morphological characters that were visible and photographs were taken in situ under both light and dark conditions (Image 1a).

The species was identified based on physical characteristics like small-sized, pileus 2.5 to 4.5 mm, obtusely conical, subumbilicate to umbilicate centrally depressed with pale brown striations in the middle; decurrent and distant lamellae and central, cylindrical stipe with tapering at the pileus and slightly swollen at the base; pileus margin acute. Bioluminescence was only observed within the stipe, which emits bright luminous green light evenly in the dark (Image 1b,c). These morphological characters lead us to assign the observation as Roridomyces cf. phyllostachydis, later confirmed by one of the authors (Karunarathna S.C. pers. comm. 31 May 2022).

Earlier observation of Roridomyces cf. phyllostachydis showed its distribution to be gregarious and scattered, growing on dead bamboo sticks of Phyllostachys mannii (Karunarathna et al. 2020). Our observation also supports this description except that we found only a single group of fruiting bodies in the surveyed area. Previously there have been a few studies on the fungal species of Arunachal Pradesh (Sharma et al. 2015; Tabin et al. 2014) but to date, there is no record of any bioluminescent fungi from the state. Hence our observation of Roridomyces cf. phyllostachydis is the new distribution record from Namdapha, Arunachal Pradesh which is ~493 km (aerial distance) away from the previous record. There have been several hypotheses regarding the evolutionary significance of bioluminescence in fungi facilitating reproduction by attracting insects for the dispersal of basidiospores (Bechara 2015) or as a defensive mechanism to reduce predation (Karunarathna et al. 2020; Dauner et al. 2021) but no thorough study has been conducted on its ecological effects. Hence our observation further demands more research on its ecological aspect and its effect on associated flora and fauna.

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