New light on names and naming of dark taxa

By

Ryberg, Martin K.
Nilsson, R. Henrik

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2018

Original Publication

Nature conservation

Volume

30

Pages

31-39

Subjects

Biodiversity , Mycology , Nomenclature , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers 2012-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.30.24376

 

Abstract

A growing proportion of fungal species and lineages are known only from sequence data and cannot be linked to any physical specimen or resolved taxonomic name. Such fungi are often referred to as “dark taxa” or “dark matter fungi”. As they lack a taxonomic identity in the form of a name, they are regularly ignored in many important contexts, for example in legalisation and species counts. It is therefore very urgent to find a system to also deal with these fungi. Here, issues relating to the taxonomy and nomenclature of dark taxa are discussed and a number of questions that the mycological community needs to consider before deciding on what system/s to implement are highlighted.