Macroscopic features

  Pileus 6 x 4 mm when still closed, expanded 8-16 mm, rounded conical, first entirely covered with white, felty veil, at centre often sepia-coloured and persistent there, breaking up in small, hairy-floccose scales. Lamellae crowded, free, first white, later blackish brown. Stipe up to 30 x 0,5-1 mm, whitish, minutely fibrillose-floccose, later glabrous; base slightly bulbous.

Microscopic features

  Spores [100,4,2] 8.5-13.7 x 6.0-9.1 µm, ellipsoid or ovoid, rounded at apex, dark red-brown, with central, c. 1.5 µm wide germ pore; Q = 1.30-1.75, gem. Q = 1.50-1.60; av. L = 10.3-12.4, av. B = 6.8-7.9 µm. Basidia 14-28 x 9-10 µm, 4-spored, surrounded by 4-6 pseudoparaphyses. Pleurocystidia 60-90 x 25-28 µm, ellipsoid, (sub)cylindrical. Cheilocystidia 35-55 x 20-32 µm, ellipsoid or (sub)globose. Elements of veil thick-walled, 3-9 µm wide, diverticulate and strongly, multiple-branched with long, thick-walled terminal elements, ascending from the pileipellis; walls up to 1.5(-2.5) µm thick. Clamp-connections present.

Habitat & distribution

  In small groups on dung of deer and elephant. Very rare. Europe, Africa. Not known from the Netherlands.

Remarks

  Microscopically C. vermiculifer can easily be recognized by the brown, thick-walled terminal elements of the veil in combination with the large spores and the habitat on dung.