New Zealand. WAIKATO: vie. Tuakau, Klondyke Hill, on sheep dung, G. M. Taylor, 3 Aug 1985, PDD 49587. BAY OF PLENTY: Rotorua, on sheep dung, P. Broadhurst, May 1987, PDD 45588. NORTH CANTERBURY: Mount Thomas Forest Park, Richardson Track picnic area, on sheep dung, P. R. Johnston, 15 Mar 1991, PDD 58476

Pileus 10-25 mm diam., more or less subglobose, becoming convex to campanulate to somewhat flattened: slightly tacky: scattered veil remnants along edge of cap when young: dark orange-brown or reddish-brown, finely striate to margin, hygrophanous, drying to pale yellow. Gills broadly adnate to sub-decurrent: pale greyish yellow-brown, with white fimbriate margin. Stipe 20-40(-70) x 1.5-2 mm, light yellow-brown, slightly darker to base. Veil cortinoid, poorly developed, visible only in very young caps. Basidia 27-35 x 8-11 µm, more or less cylindrical, tapering suddenly to small base, sometimes slightly constricted near centre, 4-spored, clamped. Cheilocystidia 20-30 x 5.5-7.5 µm, ventricose-rostrate, with long, flexuous, unbranching neck, hyaline, thin-walled. Pleurocystidia rare, ventricose, 27-36 x 8.5-10 µm. Spores (13-)14-16(-18) x 8.5-10(-l 1) x 7.5-9 µm, average 15.3 x 9.4 x 8.4 µm, in face view broad-elliptic to subhexagonal to subhexagonal, in side view elliptic; wall brown, smooth, 1-1.2 µm thick, with apical pore.

New Zealand: Waikato, Bay of Plenty, North Canterbury. Reported as widespread in Central and South America, as well as occurring in the southern United States and Europe (Guzman 1983).

Dung of farm animals.

A new record for the country, the New Zealand collections closely match the description of this species given by Guzman (1983). Watling & Gregory (1987) considered the European collections cited by Guzman to be better placed in a separate species, P. merdicola Huijsman.