Macrofungi are an important food source for many mammals, birds and arthropods; in return, these animals disperse numerous species of fungi through their scats. Many of the fungi that are important as food also perform key functions in the ecosystem through nutrient cycling. Research on associations between reptiles and fungi has primarily focused on pathology and has mostly overlooked mutually beneficial relationships between these two groups of organisms and the positive impacts of their associations on overall ecosystem health. There is a substantial body of disparate research showing the importance of turtles as seed dispersers, but we provide the first study evaluating the ecological implications of turtles and other reptiles as macrofungi spore dispersers. These associations have been less thoroughly studied than those between mammals and fungi, yet we show that they have similar ecological importance. In this review, we present the most comprehensive summary to date of reptile species reported to eat fungi (42 reptile species in 7 families) and outline the potential importance of reptiles as spore dispersers for fungi that play a positive role in ecosystem dynamics. We also show that oversights in the methodology of past dietary studies may have led to false representation of the role of fungi in reptile diets, and we make recommendations for future dietary studies involving reptiles.

As part of an effort started in the 1980's by Dr. Jim Trappe to survey the truffle diversity of Australia, we held the first annual Barrington Tops Hypogeous Fungus Foray June 28th to July 1st. About 20 enthusiastic truffle collectors from New South Wales and Queensland joined us at beautiful Wangat Lodge just outside of Barrington Tops National Park (Fig. 1). Barrington Tops National Park is a World Heritage-listed site.

An abundant fruiting of a black morel was encountered in temperate northwestern New South Wales (NSW), Australia, during a mycological survey in Sep 2010. The site was west of the Great Dividing Range in a young, dry sclerophyll forest dominated by Eucalyptus and Callitris north of Coonabarabran in an area known as the Pilliga Scrub. Although the Pilliga Scrub is characterized by frequent and often large, intense wildfires, the site showed no sign of recent fire, which suggests this species is not a postfire morel. Caps of the Morchella elata-like morel were brown with blackish ridges supported by a pubescent stipe that became brown at maturity. Because no morel has been described as native to Australia, the collections were subjected to multilocus molecular phylogenetic and morphological analyses to assess its identity. Results of these analyses indicated that our collection, together with collections from NSW and Victoria, represented a novel, genealogically exclusive lineage, which is described and illustrated here as Morchella australiana T. F. Elliott, Bougher, O’Donnell & Trappe, sp. nov.

Yacon, Smallanthus sonchifolius (Poepp.) H. Rob (Asteraceae), is recorded as a new host plant for Entylia carinata (Forster) (Hemiptera: Membracidae) in Mt. Holly, NC. Adults, nymphs, and attending ants were found on numerous plants.

Eight truffle taxa are identified as new records for Turkey: two representing Ascomycota (Tuber ferrugineum, Tuber puberulum) and six representing Basidiomycota (Hymenogaster rehsteineri, Hysterangium calcareum, Leucophleps aculeatispora, Melanogaster macrosporus, Sclerogaster compactus, Sclerogaster hysterangioides). We also report new localities within Turkey for Tuber borchii and Melanogaster ambiguus.

Reports of ornithomycological interactions are scattered across multiple bird families, including: Acanthizidae, Alaudidae, Casuariidae, Corvidae, Dromaiidae, Glareolidae, Megapodiidae, Petroicidae, Prunellidae, Psittaculidae, Strigopidae, and Upupidae, (Simpson 1998; Simpson 2000; Beever & Lebel 2014). These records document fungi as food for birds ranging from Cassowaries to Siberian Jays; in some cases, fungi may comprise a seasonally significant portion of birds' diets (Andreev 1978; Alsheikh & Trappe 1983; Simpson 1998; Medway 2000; Doerr & Doerr 2002; Beever & Lebel 2014).

The Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) is one of several species of wrens found in the Carolinas. This small-bodied bird is found year-round through much of the eastern United States and south into Mexico (Peterson and Peterson 2002). It is the only wren in eastern North America that does not migrate to warmer climates in the winter (Sibley 2000). This overwintering habit makes the species vulnerable to harsh winter temperatures, particularly in the mountains of the Carolinas and in the northern portion of the bird's range. Many researchers have concluded from studies in the colder portions of its range that winter survival is directly related to low temperatures (Brooks 1936; Root 1988; Link and Sauer 2007). Other researchers have suggested that it might be linked to the availability of food resources (Job and Bednekoff 2011). Ultimately, both factors contribute to the bird's range, and changes in climate temperature have been directly correlated to the gradual northward range expansion of the species (Job and Bednekoff 2011).

We describe three new species of Elaphomyces from eastern North America. Of the three, Elaphomyces loebiae is the rarest, known only from North Carolina and South Carolina, and appears to associate primarily with ectomycorrhizal hardwoods but possibly also with conifers. Elaphomyces cibulae is widely distributed but disjunct from Florida, Mississippi, and North Carolina. Elaphomyces cibulae seems to primarily associate with Quercus species. Elaphomyces mitchelliae has the widest distribution of the three species, from Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, and appears to associate with either ectomycorrhizal hardwoods and/or conifers. In the course of comparing our new Elaphomyces species to previously described European species we discovered that E. persoonii var. minor is conspecific in all essential details with and thus a synonym of E. cyanosporus.

Russula scarlatina sp. nov. is a common sequestrate fungus found in the dry sclerophyll Eucalyptus woodlands of southeastern Australia. Basidiomata are hypogeous or sometimes emergent; they are scarlet in youth and become dark sordid red or brown with advanced age. Historically, this species would have been placed in the genus Gymnomyces, but in light of recent revisions in the taxonomy of sequestrate Russulaceae, we place it in the genus Russula. It is morphologically distinct from other sequestrate species of Russula because of its scarlet peridium and unusual cystidial turf in youth. It has been collected only in dry grassy woodlands and open forest habitats of southeastern Australia.

Hysterangium colossum sp. nov, with extraordinarily large basidiomata for the genus, is described from dry Eucalyptus woodlands in the Australian Capital Territory and southeastern New South Wales. It typically grows in confluent clusters and has a thick peridium often invaginated into the gleba.