Squamanita

Squamanita is a genus of parasitic fungi in the family Squamanitaceae. Basidiocarps (fruit bodies) superficially resemble normal agarics (gilled mushrooms) but emerge from parasitized fruit bodies of deformed host agarics.

==Taxonomy== The genus was created in 1946 by Swiss mycologist Emil Imbach to accommodate an unusual agaric species, Squamanita schreieri, which L. Schreier had earlier described and illustrated as "Tricholoma X". In 1965 Dutch mycologist Cornelis Bas expanded the genus to five species, all of which were characterized by arising from "sclerotial bodies". The possibility that Squamanita might be parasitic on other agarics (the remains of which formed the "sclerotial bodies") was noted by British mycologist Derek Reid in 1983. The discovery of a host fruit body that formed its own pileus together with three Squamanita pilei confirmed the parasitic nature of the genus, a discovery subsequently featured in Nature under the title 'Mycological mystery tour'.