Scientific information about biodiversity distribution is indispensable for nature conservation and sustainable management of natural resources. For several groups of animals and plants, such data are available, but for fungi, especially in tropical regions like West Africa, they are mostly missing. Here, information for West African countries about species diversity of fungi and fungus-like organisms (other organisms traditionally studied by mycologists) is compiled from literature and analysed in its historical context for the first time. More than 16,000 records of fungi representing 4843 species and infraspecific taxa were found in 860 publications relating to West Africa. Records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) database (2395 species), and that of the former International Mycological Institute fungal reference collection (IMI) (2526 species) were also considered. The compilation based on literature is more comprehensive than the GBIF and IMI data, although they include 914 and 679 species names, respectively, which are not present in the checklist based on literature. According to data available in literature, knowledge on fungal richness ranges from 19 species (Guinea Bissau) to 1595 (Sierra Leone). In estimating existing species diversity, richness estimators and the Hawksworth 6:1 fungus to plant species ratio were used. Based on the Hawksworth ratio, known fungal diversity in West Africa represents 11.4% of the expected diversity. For six West African countries, however, known fungal species diversity is less than 2%. Incomplete knowledge of fungal diversity is also evident by species accumulation curves not reaching saturation, by 45.3% of the fungal species in the checklist being cited only once for West Africa, and by 66.5% of the fungal species in the checklist reported only for a single country. The documentation of different systematic groups of fungi is very heterogeneous because historically investigations have been sporadic. Recent opportunistic sampling activities in Benin showed that it is not difficult to find specimens representing new country records. Investigation of fungi in West Africa started just over two centuries ago and it is still in an early pioneer phase. To promote proper exploration, the present checklist is provided as a tool to facilitate fungal identification in this region and to aid conceptualisation and justification of future research projects. Documentation of fungal diversity is urgently needed because natural habitats are being lost on a large scale through altered land use and climate change.

中文翻译：

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绘制真菌学的无知-清单和西非真菌的多样性模式。

关于生物多样性分布的科学信息对于自然保护和自然资源的可持续管理必不可少。对于几类动植物，这些数据是可用的，但对于真菌，尤其是在西非这样的热带地区，它们却大多缺失。这里，从文献中收集了有关西非国家有关真菌和类真菌生物（真菌学家传统上研究的其他生物）物种多样性的信息，并首次在其历史背景下进行了分析。在860份与西非有关的出版物中发现了超过16,000条真菌记录，代表4843种和亚种生物。来自全球生物多样性信息基金（GBIF）数据库（2395种）的记录，还考虑了前国际真菌学研究所的真菌参考文献（IMI）（2526种）的文献。基于文献的汇编比GBIF和IMI数据更全面，尽管它们分别包含914和679种名称，但基于文献的清单中没有这些名称。根据文献中的数据，有关真菌丰富性的知识范围从19种（几内亚比绍）到1595年（塞拉利昂）。在估算现有物种多样性时，使用了丰富度估算器和霍克斯沃思真菌与植物的比例为6：1。根据霍克斯沃思比率，西非已知的真菌多样性占预期多样性的11.4％。但是，对于六个西非国家而言，已知的真菌物种多样性不到2％。物种积累曲线未达到饱和也表明了对真菌多样性的不完全了解，清单中45.3％的真菌物种仅在西非被引用过一次，清单中66.5％的真菌物种仅报告了一次国家。由于历史上的调查是零星的，因此不同系统真菌类的文献非常不同。贝宁最近的机会抽样活动表明，找到代表新国家记录的标本并不困难。西非真菌研究始于两个多世纪前，目前仍处于早期开拓阶段。为了促进适当的探索，提供本清单是一种工具，可促进该地区的真菌鉴定，并有助于未来研究项目的概念化和合理化。迫切需要对真菌多样性进行记录，因为随着土地用途的改变和气候变化，自然栖息地正在大量丧失。