Description:— Basidiocarps small, omphalinoid. Pileus 3–6 mm diam., initially convex or somewhat plano-convex with or without a central depression, becoming deeply umbilicate with age; surface white, weakly hygrophanous and becoming whitish, somewhat velutinous, finely pruinose all over; margin incurved to slightly inrolled, entire or slightly wavy. Lamellae subdecurrent to decurrent, close, white or whitish, up to 2 mm wide, with lamellulae of 1–3 lengths; edge entire or slightly wavy, concolorous with the sides. Stipe 4–9 × 1–1.5 mm, central, terete, equal, somewhat flexuose, cartilaginous, solid; surface white, finely pruinose all over, densely so towards the apex; base with white cottony mycelium. Odor not distinctive. Taste farinaceous. Spore print not obtained.

Basidiospores 5–7 × 3.5–4.5 (6.5±0.58 × 4.0±0.22) μm, Q = 1.25–1.75, Qm = 1.48, ellipsoid in profile, with 8−9 prominent longitudinal ribs in polar view, colorless, thin-walled. Basidia 20–26 × 6–7 μm, clavate, colorless, thin-walled, 4-spored; sterigmata up to 5 μm long. Lamella-edge fertile. Cheilocystidia and pleurocystidia absent. Lamellar trama subregular; hyphae 3–7 μm wide, colorless or pale yellow, thin-walled. Subhymenium inconspicuous. Pileus trama interwoven; hyphae 5–8 μm wide, colorless or pale yellow, thin-walled. Pileipellis a cutis of loosely interwoven hyphae, often disrupted by solitary erect hyphae; hyphae 3–5 μm wide, colorless or very pale yellow, thin-walled. Stipitipellis a cutis often disrupted with isolated or clustered erect hyphae; hyphae 4–7μm wide, colorless, thin-walled. Caulocystidia absent. Clamp connections absent.

Habitat: — On forest soil, in small groups.

Worldwide geographical distribution range:—Known from China (holotype) and India.

Specimens examined:— INDIA. Kerala State: Thrissur District, Peechi Forest, 16 September 2011, K. N. Anil raj, AR868 (CAL 1326); INDIA. Kerala State: Malappuram District, Nilambur forest, 11 November 2011, K. N. Anil Raj, AR955 (CAL 1325). GenBank accessions: MF927542 (ITS), MF946580 (nLSU) and MF946581 (rpb2).

Comments:—The Kerala collections agree with Clitopilus subscyphoides, a species originally described from China (Deng et al. 2013), in almost all characters. The Chinese collection differs only in having crowded lamellae and both 2- and 4-spored basidia. Clitopilus subscyphoides is characterized by its small, chalk white, omphalinoid basidiocarps, smooth or slightly matted, silky-fibrillose, non-striate pileus with incurved margin, decurrent, crowded and narrow lamellae devoid of cystidia, and ellipsoid basidiospores with 8–10 longitudinal ridges and occasionally with a slight suprahilar depression. Characters such as the small basidiocarps, the basidiospores that are smaller than 10 μm, and the presence of a constant and distinct stipe place the present Clitopilus species in the section Scyphoides (Singer 1986).

In a megablast search using the ITS (657 bp) sequence, the closest hits were Clitopilus giovanellae (Bres.) Josserand (1941: 10) (GenBank EF413030, 95 % identity) and C. scyphoides (GenBank FJ770401, 95 % identity). Blast search with rpb2 sequences showed no close hits with an e-value of zero.