Conservation Status of Milkcaps (Basidiomycota, Russulales, Russulaceae), with Notes on Poorly Known Species

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

See attached document.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

I found the article original and very relevant. When areas in parts of the world are being destroyed and edible species of mushrooms are over-collected in some places, articles that help develop measurements to conservation are essential. 

Overall it reads well in my opinion, but maybe some parts could be synthesized. 

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

General view

The paper of Leonardi et al. offers an interesting insight into the conservation status of the red-listed species belonging to Lactarius and Lactifluus genera.

For this, the authors used a huge amount of data, managing to properly filter the milkcaps species according to their threatening class, within their countries/regions. Within the results and discussions, the authors are focusing on milkcaps species’ diversity and global distribution, contribution of citizen science, conservation category assessment issues.

Comments.

Row 293: "The substantial lack of macrofungal conservation efforts in Africa and many Asian and American countries might, at least partly, explain why Lactifluus species are severely underrepresented in Table 1." The fact that there are fewer species of Lactifluus than of Lactarius has little probability of being caused by the conservation efforts, unless there are more species of Lactifluus than Lactarius in Africa, America, and Asia, which cannot be (still) entirely proved, despite Lactifluus’ apparently the center of diversification in tropical areas. Please reformulate.

Rows 222-224: "Despite general acceptance of the new taxonomic organization of milkcaps, in several Red Data Lists species of Lactifluus continue to be listed as Lactarius (see Table 1 and relevant 224 notes)." Even if numerous Lactifluus species are still present as Lactarius in some red lists, this does not have the smallest impact on the species conservation status. Still, it is important for the red list to mention the complete name according to IndexFungorum (including authors' names) for the correct synonymization to be made. Please add to this sentence an explanation, emphasizing the importance of this info.

Also, in the context of the specific group you address, I would suggest modifying the map by including only the Lactarius and Lactifluus species filtered.

Conclusion

The paper has many important outputs. The first one consists of a present and updated inventory of all assessed red-listed species of an important ectomycorrhizal group. The other outputs are highlighted in the interpretations of this list, from many points of view, both in terms of the global distribution of the numbers and of conservation assessment and issues.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx