SPECIMENS: NZ: NA, Waitakere Ranges, Titirangi Atkinson Park, ZT 742 (McNabb, 22); Walker's Bush, ZT 741 (McNabb, 23); Northcote, Kauri Glen Park, Birkenhead, PDD 29373, LBI, near summit of Mt Hauturu, ZT 916. - W, Waiopehu, Stevenson, K 239 (as H. pseudococcineus).

Pileus-30 mm, hemispherical to plano-convex with obtuse umbo, overmature specimens sometimes with subdepressed centre; brilliant red (scarlet) in fresh specimens, fading to yellow with faint orange tinge soon discolouring to pale yellow; dry, hygrophanous, margin non-striate in dry condition, radially fibrillose, subsquamulose or scurfy in centre due to concolorous fibrils, smooth towards subsulcate margin. - Lamellae broadly adnate to decurrent or emarginate-ventricose, nearly triangular, up to 7 mm wide, rather distant; concolorous with pileus turning yellow to pale orange, entire edges concolorous. - Stipe 40-80 x 1.5 4 (-5) mm, cylindrical, equal or gradually tapering towards base, slender, occasionally compressed and twisted; brilliant red turning orange above but yellow to whitish at tomentose or substrigose base; dry, smooth, solid at first becoming hollow in aged specimens, single or caespitose. - Context concolorous with pileus, red beneath cortex of pileus and stipe with faint orange tinge towards base of stipe. - Odour and taste not distinctive. - Chemical reactions on pileus: KOH - negative. Spores dimorphous, elliptical to ellipsoid, hyaline: macrospores 12-17 x 8-10.5 um; microspores 6-10.5 x 4.5-6 um. - Basidia dimorphous, 4- (and rarely also 2-) spored: macrobasidia 60-85 x 8-12um; microbasidia 40-50 (-60) x 5-6 um. - Cystidia absent. - Pileipellis a trichoderm of cylindrical, smooth, non-gelatinised hyphae (5-12 um diam.), terminal cells not differentiated, with yellow (KOH) plasmatic pigment, oleiferous hyphae often present in subcutis; clamp connections present (Pl. 1, Figs. 1, 2).

DISTRIBUTION: NZ(N, NA, SA,W). - Pantropical species with wide distribution both in E Asia (Corner 1936; Hongo 1959, 1982) and Caribbean region (Dennis 1953;.Pegler 1983,1986).

ECOLOGY: Common; saprobic on soil among litter in mixed conifer and broadleaved forests, rarely under Nothofagus. April-July.

ICON.: Corner (1936: 176); Hongo (1955: 73); Stevenson (1962: 379); Pegler (1983: 69, pl. 2 B); Pegler (1986: 68).

TYPE: Sri Lanka (for data and discussion cf. Pegler 1986: 565).

Pileus 2-3 cm. diam., brilliant red with orange margin, dotted centrally with orange or yellow fibrils, plano-convex; flesh waxy, red. Gills adnate to slightly decurrent, reddish orange with yellow margins, thick and sometimes wrinkled, moderately distant. Stipe 4-5 cm X 4-5 mm., brilliant red, yellow at base, hollow, sometimes twisted. Spores 15 X 8-9 µm., ovoid, hyaline, thin-walled (Fig. 2/8.).

habitat: in mountain forests under Nothofagus etc., Levin, 15.5.1948, Stevenson, Rotoiti, 16.5.1956, E. Kidson.

The writer considers that this commonly collected New Zealand fungus is clearly referable to the Japanese species, though the New Zealand form appears to be larger with a more slender stipe.