Aureoboletus projectellus (Fungi, Boletales) - An American bolete rapidly spreading in Europe as a new model species for studying expansion of macrofungi

Aureoboletus projectellus is a bolete native to eastern North America that has recently started to spread in Central Europe and is considered as a potentially invasive species. Maximum entropy approach implemented in MaxEnt was used to estimate the distribution of its potential niche in Europe. The model obtained and current data about species’ geographic distribution in the European range were combined to predict direction of further dispersal and provide a list of locations requiring monitoring. According to the model, a continuous ring of favourable conditions around the Baltic Sea, together with a well-established bridgehead in Poland and Baltic states, make the expansion in this region virtually unstoppable. The case of A. projectellus constitutes an excellent opportunity for testing the utility of the employed model in practice and studying the dynamics of alien species dispersal process.