中国农业植物病原菌物常见种属名录

Aims:Fungi have the richest biodiversity on earth, second to insects. Thousands of new fungal species have been discovered and described every year recently. Timely analysis of the published data of new fungal names can show the research hotspots of fungal taxonomy in details and provide reference data for the future development of mycology.

Method: The taxonomic data of new published fungal name were retrieved from the database of Fungal Names, Index Fungorum and MycoBank.

Results: In 2020, at least 4,996 new fungal names including 652 new higher taxa, 2,905 new species and new intraspecific taxa, 1,342 new combinations, and 97 other novelties, were published by 1,978 scholars in 885 articles and 9 monographs all over the world, reaching the historically highest annual record of new fungal names. These new names belong to 12 phyla, 44 classes, 173 orders, 469 families and 1,386 genera, among which ascomycetes had received more attentions. The type specimens of new species were from 103 countries and regions in the world. East and Southeast Asia were the hot spots of new species discovery, while China was the country with the highest number of new species discovered (669 species), accounting for 23% of the world's total. Besides, China had made remarkable achievements in fungal taxonomy in 2020, with 333 Chinese scholars participating in the publications of 1,271 new fungal names, accounting for about a quarter of the total number in the world.

Conclusion: As shown by the analysis, the discovery of new fungal species is accelerating, with the increased number of new published names and authors. However, the description rate of fungal species is still at a low level, which leaves a long-term and arduous task for mycologists to discover undescribed fungi efficiently.