The ghost fungus was initially described in 1844 by English naturalist Miles Joseph Berkeley as Agaricus nidiformis. Berkeley felt it was related to Agaricus ostreatus (now Pleurotus ostreatus) but remarked it was a "far more magnificent species".[2] Material was originally collected by Scottish naturalist James Drummond in 1841 on Banksia wood along the Swan River. He wrote "when this fungus was laid on a newspaper, it emitted by night a phosphorescent light, enabling us to read the words around it; and it continued to do so for several nights with gradually decreasing intensity as the plant dried up."[3] More material collected from near the base of a "sickly but living" shrub (Grevillea drummondii) was named as Agaricus lampas by Berkeley. He noted both were phosphorescent and closely related species.[4] Tasmanian botanist Ronald Campbell Gunn collected material in October 1845 from that state, which Berkeley felt differed from previous collections in having more demarcated and less decurrent gills and a shorter stipe, and named it Agaricus phosphorus in 1848.[5] Italian mycologist Pier Andrea Saccardo placed all three named taxa in the genus Pleurotus in 1887.[6] These names have been synonymised with O. nidiformis, although the name Pleurotus lampas persisted in some texts,[1] including the 1934–35 monograph of Australian fungi by John Burton Cleland.[7] In reviewing the published literature, Victorian botanical liaison officer Jim Willis was aware of Rolf Singer's placing of Pleurotus olearius into the genus Omphalotus, but stopped short of transferring the ghost fungus across, even though he conceded it was wrongly placed in Pleurotus.[8] Investigating the species in 1994, Orson K. Miller, Jr. gave the ghost fungus its current binomial name when he transferred it to the genus Omphalotus with other bioluminescent mushrooms.[7]