A neotype is a specimen or illustration selected to serve as the nomenclatural type of a name when no original material exists, or for as long as it is missing (Madrid Code, Art. 9.8). Its job is to keep a name tied to something concrete when the holotype and everything else the author used has been lost or destroyed.
The rules set an order. If any original material survives, a lectotype chosen from it comes first; a lectotype always takes precedence over a neotype, with narrow exceptions (Art. 9.13). A neotype may also be chosen when a lost type is replaced to preserve how a name has long been used (Art. 9.16). If a neotype itself proves too ambiguous, an epitype can support it.
In mushroom names, neotypes matter most for old names published before type specimens were routinely kept. For Agaricus junonius, which Fries published in 1821 and which is the basionym of Gymnopilus junonius, Index Fungorum records “Typification: not indicated” (Index Fungorum). Like any type, a neotype anchors a name; it is not an identification guide.
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