New data on puffballs (Agaricomycetes, Basidiomycota) from the Northeast Region of Brazil

In order to increase the knowledge of puffballs in Brazil, specimens were collected in the State of Pernambuco, an understudied area in the Northeast Region, between June 2008 and April 2009. Arachnion album, Bovista dominicensis, and Morganella fuliginea are recorded for the first time from this region. Bovista grandipora, collected on soil among grass, is described as a new species in the Bovista delicata-complex. This species is characterized by a thin whitish exoperidium, an olive-brown endoperidium, punctate to verruculose, apedicellate basidiospores (4-5.5 mu m diam.), and capillitium of the Lycoperdon-type with large pits in the hyphal units. Descriptions and illustrations, including SEM micrographs of basidiospores, are presented for each of the identified species, and keys to the recorded species of Arachnion, Bovista, and Morganella from Brazil are also provided.