This research presents a new species in the genus Conocybe collected from the tropical semi-arid District Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Morphological features, and DNA barcoding marker (ITS-region) were used for the systematic placement of Conocybe karakensis. The present species is characterized by having a medium-sized fruiting body, semi-ovate, orange-colored pileus, free, spaced, and regular lamellae with a central, light brown stipe, thick-walled, oblong basidiospores and clavate shaped, tetra-sterigamtic basidia. Molecularly, initial Blast analysis and the phylogenetic analyses showed that Pakistani collection is closely related to Conocybe velutipes. In the phylogenetic tree, ITS sequences of Pakistani collection clustered in a separate clade sister to Conocybe velutipes. This study provides full description, illustrations, and phylogenetic analyses to distinguish this novel taxon from its closest relatives.

In this work, we introduced a new report, Coprinopsis afrocinerea, a coprinoid mushroom from Pakistan. This species was collected several times during the monsoon season; it was found growing on animal dung and on sandy soil mixed with wood chips and leaf litter. This taxon was identified through morphological (macro-and micromorphology) techniques and molecular (ITS-region) markers. Results showed that Pakistani collection's macro-and micro-morphological characters match the type specimen of Coprinopsis afrocinerea. In the phylogenetic tree, sequences of our collections fall within section Cinereae and are clustered with type sequences of Coprinopsis afrocinerea with strong statistical support. This species has already been reported from Africa and is described here for the first time from Asia. Previously, only seven species of Coprinopsis have been reported from Pakistan, and in this study, the number of known taxa has increased to eight. This paper provides a detailed morphological and molecular analysis of this species to differentiate it from closely related taxa.