Clathrus argentinus is a saprotrophic fungal species found growing on decaying wood and litter. Despite being easily recognized in the field due to its bright pink basidiomata, the species is considered rare and likely endemic to the Gran Chaco ecoregion. Despite the lack of data about the species distribution and its population trends, C. argentinus has the potential to be threatened. Up to now, this species is assessed as Data Deficient.

Clathrus argentinus L.S. Domínguez, Boletín de la Sociedad Argentina de Botánica 24 (1-2): 131 (1985).

Clathrus argentinus is a saprotrophic fungal species that is found growing on decaying wood and litter. Despite being easily recognized in the field due to its bright pink basidiomata, the species is considered rare and likely endemic to the Gran Chaco ecoregion. Despite the lack of data about the species distribution and its population trends, C. argentinus could be threatened and should be assessed in the IUCN Global Fungal Red List.

Clathrus argentinus is known from semi-arid region of Argentina and urban areas of Paraguay. The type specimen was first recorded from the Province of Jujuy, Argentina in 1985. Thirty five years later, two additional specimens were collected in the department of Central, Paraguay. (Dominguez de Toledo 1985, Campi et al. 2021). This is considered a rare species but is expected to occur in dry forest and bushvelds in the Gran Chaco ecoregion.

The species is believed to be endemic to the Gran Chaco ecoregion but further research is needed to confirm its distribution. It is not possible to infer population trends due to the small number of records and the lack of data about the species distribution and its niche.

Clathrus argentinus has a gregarious habitat, with few basidiomata, next to roads or urban areas. It is saprotrophic and grows on decaying wood and litter. It is easy to recognize the species in the field due to its bright pink basidiomata that stands out from the substrate (Dominguez de Toledo, 1985). It is found in summer months after rains.

Currently, the Chaco ecoregion is considered a global deforestation hotspot (Baumann et al., 2017; Hansen et al., 2013; Kuemmerle et al., 2017) between 1985 and 2013, more than 20% of the Chaco forests has been converted to grasslands for cattle and croplands (Romero-Muñoz et al. 2018). The use of pesticides for cultivation of soy and the fires for clearing forest for cattle ranching are associated to the threats of the species habitat.

The main action to preserve the species is the protection of its known habitat and creation of new conservation areas to harbor the probability of conservation in situ. Also, ex situ conservation if viable should be performed to conserve the genetic diversity of species.

Further investigation is necessary to better document the distribution and understand the biology of the species around the natural ecosystem. Moreover, the use of molecular data for phylogenetic analysis is important to test the morphology and to understand the evolutionary relationships within genus. Viability of strains for ex situ conservation of the species.

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