Maas Geesteranus (1989 c) proposed the new section Insignes to accomodate the five American species Mycena insignis A.H. Sm., M. odorifera Peck, M. pseudoclavicularis A.H. Sm., M. quiniaultensis Kauffman, and M. roriduliformis (Murril) Dennis. An important feature of this section is the gelatinous layer covering the hyphae of both the pileipellis and the stipitipellis. The cheilocystidia, however, are not embedded in gelatinous matter.

Later, Maas Geesteranus (1992 b) described two new species of this section from the Netherlands, namely Mycena mitis and M. corrugans. Maas Geesteranus & Horak (1995) included the new species Mycena tephrina from New Caledonia, and Robich (1996) proposed another new species from Spain, Mycena calceata. Maas Geesteranus & de Meijer (1997) added the new species M. conspera, M. demissa and M. surculosa to the section from the state of Paraná in Brazil.

Villarreal et al. (1999), however, slightly altered the circumscription of section Insignes and transferred M. quiniaultensis, M. conspersa, M. mitis and M. corrugans to section Fragilipedes. They claimed that the features of sect. Insignes mentioned above, can also be found in sect. Fragilipedes (e. g. M. stipata), but members of sect. Insignes have invariably arcuate lamellae. Another species added to sect. Insignes was Mycena gladiocystis (Esteve-Raventós & Ortega 1999), equally transferred to sect. Fragilipedes by Moreno et al. (1999).

A new account to the section is Mycena borellae Robich, a species collected in Italy (Robich 2006). The description of the lamellae - 'ascendenti, decorrenti per un dentino' - however, does not fit into the new, altered diagnosis of the section. It should probably better be accomodated in sect. Fragilipedes.

More recent accounts are Mycena subinsignis Esteve-Rav. & Barrasa from Spain (Esteve-Raventós & Barrasa 2009), Mycena choriophila Robich & Gasparini (Robich & Gasparini 2009) and Mycena circacea Robich (Robich 2009d).