Color Variation In Two Neotropical Species Of Scutellinia

Collecting trips in the American tropics have yielded two unusual specimens of Scutellinia. Although assigned to existing species, these specimens exhibit subtle differences from the descriptions of both species. Normally red to brownish red, a specimen of Scutellinia balansae was collected on decaying banana leaves in Venezuela that has a yellow hymenium. In Scutellinia blumenaviensis the hymenium is usually bright red, brownish red to grayish, however, a specimen with a golden-yellow hymenium was collected on a rotting log in the northeastern lowlands of Ecuador. Descriptions and illustrations of these two species are provided.