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Pictorial supplement to The Fifth Kingdom - Chapter 15

Fungi exploiting microscopic animals

(27 pictures)

[These pictures are almost all borrowed from Dr. George Barron's fine treatise
"The Nematode-Destroying Fungi"  which I urge you all to read]

Nematode-exploiting fungi - ripe zoosporangia of Catenaria anguillulae (Chytridiomycetes) that have developed inside a nematode.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - a linear series of zoosporangia of Myzocytium filling the body cavity of a nematode



Nematode-exploiting fungi - sticky conidia of Meria coniospora - there is a blob of glue at the narrow end.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - conidia of Meria coniospora attached to the anterior end of a nematode.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - conidiophores of Verticillium arising from a nematode corpse, and producing sticky conidia.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - globose conidiogenous cells of Harposporium anguillulae producing sickle-shaped conidia.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - curved and pointed conidia of Harposporium rhynchosporum and Harposporium diceraeum.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - adhesive knobs of Arthobotrys candida (Hyphomycetes), 5 of which (count them) have caught a nematode.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - detached adhesive knobs of Arthrobotrys candida (Hyphomycetes) stuck to a doomed nematode.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - adhesive knobs of Nematoctonus (Basidiomycetes - note the clamp connection).



 Nematode-exploiting fungi - a microscopic landscape, with Arthrobotrys oligospora (Hyphomycetes) catching nematodes in sticky nets, and producing conidiophores and conidia.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - adhesive nets of Arthrobotrys oligospora (Hyphomycetes) being produced from a nematode corpse (the dark band).



Nematode-exploiting fungi - non-constricting rings of Arthobotrys candida. Note the weak junction between hypha and ring (arrow), which facilitates detachment when a nematode passes through.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - non-constricting rings of Arthrobotrys candida fitting snugly around doomed nematodes.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - a nematode caught by two constricting ring traps of Arthrobotrys.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - a constricting ring trap before and after triggering. Note the arrowheads which show that material does not move from the hypha into the inflating cells of the ring. Inflation is by imbibition from the surroundings.



Nematode-exploiting fungi - the inflating cells of the ring rupture the outer wall along a clearly defined line of weakness, which is clearly seen in the scanning electronmicrograph (left).



Nematode-exploiting fungi - the large phragmospores of some nematode-trapping Hyphomycetes will produce a constricting ring trap immediately upon germination, if nematodes are present - and this gambit works, as these photomicrographs show!



.I have forgotten what the original legend for this cartoon was. But it certainly seems appropriate in this context.



Rotifer-exploiting fungi - the lethal lollipop - Zoophagus (Oomycetes) trapping loricate rotifers.


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