Favolus
Favolus, or honeycomb fungus, is a genus of fungi in the family Polyporaceae. The fruit bodies of "Favolus" species are fleshy with radially arranged pores on the underside of the cap that are angular and deeply pitted, somewhat resembling a honeycomb. Taxonomy. The naturalist Palisot de Beauvois was the first to use the name "Favolus" in his 1805 work "Flore d'Oware et de Benin, en Afrique". His type species was "Favolus hirtus", a fungus first collected in Africa. Elias Fries used the name as a subgenus of "Polyporus" in 1821. Seven years later, Fries used the name "Favolus" for  a different genus, with the tropical species "F. brasiliensis" as the type. Fries's concept of the genus was later accepted as it was published in one of the sanctioning works of mycology. "Favolus hirtus" is now called "Trametes hirta", and Beauvois' concept of "Favolus" is placed in synonymy with "Trametes". The generic name "Favolus" is derived from the Latin "favus" meaning "honeycomb". Until relatively recently, many works have considered "Favolus" to be synonymous with "Polyporus". Based on molecular phylogenetic analysis, "Favolus" species were shown to form two genera, and several species were transferred to "Neofavolus" in 2013. This reorganization  was accepted and verified in later studies. Description. The fruit bodies of "Favolus" fungi are annual, and have a stipe that is situated laterally to substipitate or almost sessile. The shape of the cap is spatulate (with a broad, rounded end), reniform (kidney shaped) to dimidiate (divided into two equal parts). The texture of the cap surface can be smooth, or may have minute hairs, sometimes with stiff tufts or spiny scales toward the base. Often featuring radial grooves, the cap surface is variable in colour. The stipe is cylindrical to flattened or reduced. The internal tissue of the fruit  body (context) has a tough and fleshy to leathery texture when fresh, becoming leathery to corky or brittle when dried. Pores on the underside of the cap are large to small, and either regular or radially elongated. "Favolus" has a dimitic hyphal system, containing both generative and skeletal-binding hyphae. The generative hyphae are either with or without clamp connections. Skeletal-binding hyphae are usually dominating, arboriform (tree-like), and hyaline. The cap cuticle is not differentiated into distinct layers; if present it comprises non-agglutinated parallel hyphae that are up to 50 μm thick. Basidia are club-shaped, four -sterigmate. Spores are cylindrical to navicular (boat-shaped), thin-walled, smooth, and hyaline. "Favolus" differs from "Neofavolus" in the features of the cap surface. In "Neofavolus", it is smooth to scaly, with a cutis made of hyaline to brown, parallel and agglutinated, generative hyphae that are distinct from contextual hyphae, which mainly comprise non-agglutinated skeletal-binding hyphae. Species. , Index Fungorum accepts 25 species of "Favolus".