Wrightoporia araucariae is a Critically Endangered polypore that grows exclusively on dead trunks of Araucaria angustifolia. Since its original description in 2014 , no additional records have been reported. To support its conservation and refine knowledge of its distribution, field surveys, fungarium revisions, and habitat-suitability modeling were conducted. After 25 expeditions across 17 localities throughout south Brazil, no new specimens were found. Fungarium revisions confirmed an additional collection from Canela, Rio Grande do Sul, while a previous record from Santa Catarina was reidentified as Antrodia sp., restricting its occurrence to Rio Grande do Sul. Ensemble models based on the Area of Habitat approach indicated that although the climatically suitable area is broad, only 7.4% overlaps with Araucaria forest fragments. Projections for 2070 show losses of approximately 80–97%, with remaining areas limited to isolated high-altitude refugia. Areas with high probability of occurrence and low uncertainty and extrapolation identified in future climate projections should guide in-situ conservation actions to safeguard refugia for W. araucariae . These results support the reassessment of W. araucariae as Critically Endangered under IUCN subcriteria A3c and C2a(ii).
Westphalen et al. (Thu,) studied this question.