HISTORY OF TAXONOMIC MYCOLOGY IN BELARUS:
A BIBLIOGRAPHIC SURVEY

Gasteroid fungi

The oldest source with a gasteromycete record in Belarus is the work by Meier (1786, publ. 1901), mentioning ‘Lycoperdon Bovista'. The book by Jundziłł (1830) included 15 species. Single species, Cyatus olla, was mentioned by Downar (1861) for Mahilyou vicinity. Six species from the genera Bovista, Crucibulum, Lycoperdon, Phallus, and Scleroderma were listed by Błoński (1888) for Belavezhskaya Pushcha, plus one species without the data on precise locality. One year later Błoński (1889) published 7 species, plus 4 species found possibly in Belarus area.

Some records of gasteromycetes belong to the 1st half of the 20th century. One Crucubulum and 2 Bovista species were reported by Kastory (1912). Six species were published by Lebedeva in her first list (1925, Erstes...) and 3 in the second list (Lebedeva, 1925, Zweites...). Five species from the genera Globaria and Lycoperdon were reported by Kuprevich (1931, Fungi...). Three species were published by Tumilowiczówna (1935) for the area around Valkavysk.

Seven species from the genera Calvatia, Crucibulum, Geastrum, Lycoperdon, Phallus, and Scleroderma were described and illustrated by photographs in a handbook by Serzhanina and Zmitrovich (1978). Two hypogeous species from the genus Hymenogaster and Rhizopogon were reported for the first time for Belarus by Serzhanina and Gapienko (1980, First finds…). Hymenogaster was supplied by description and picture. Six gasteroid species were described and illustrated by photographs in Serzhanina and Zmitrovich (1986).

Illustration of Scleroderma aurantium in a book by Serzhanina and Zmitrovich (1986)

A manuscript by Serzhanina (1988, Gasteromycetes…), deposited in VINITI, listed 34 species of gasteromycetes, 23 from which were recorded for the first time for Belarus. The work was based on personal author's observations in 1981–1986 and the analysis of other sources. A popular book by Serzhanina (1990) includes description of 17 gasteroid fungi and illustrations for 11 of them. In terminological brochure by Serzhanina (1991) 37 species are listed, evidently including the taxa which are provisory for Belarus. Two species were described in a paper by Mikhalevich (1997). Two species, Langermannia gigantea and Phallus impudicus, were described in the 2nd Red Data Book (Golovko & Serzhanina, 1993), and only single species, Calvatia gigantea, in the 3rd Red Data Book (Gapienko et al., 2005). Eight species of the genus Geastrum known from Belarus were published by Gapienko et al. (2006). The summary on the taxa stored in MSK herbarium (Gapienko & Shaparava, 2006: 242–251) includes 36 species.