The world of predators is so diverse that sometimes you can meet another "devourer" where you do not expect this at all. For example, in the kingdom of mushrooms. Not everyone knows which mushrooms are called predatory, how they hunt, how they are useful or dangerous to humans.
When it comes to mushrooms, it is rather difficult for us to imagine that some of them are very carnivorous. How can this be? After all, they "sit" in place and they don’t even have a mouth? Even more interesting is that people have learned to use killer mushrooms for their own benefit. How a person uses predatory mushrooms and what they are is the topic of this article.
Who are where they grow?
Already from the name itself it becomes clear which mushrooms are called predatory. Of course, those who catch and kill their victims are microscopic living organisms.
Such fungi are preferred to settle among plant roots or in mosses, but they are quite common in water bodies, especially standing ones. Some of them live on the bodies of insects, while eating them from the inside. Such mushroom hunters can shoot spores up to 1 meter away. Once on the victim’s body, they germinate inward and gradually eat it.
Surprisingly, mushrooms are practically the only living organisms on earth that instantly adapt to any climate change. It can be safely stated that these microscopic predators spread their nets right under human feet. And these networks never remain empty.
Appearance story
Mushrooms (predatory and not so) are so ancient creations that it is difficult to imagine. It’s quite problematic to establish exactly when they appeared on Earth, because the fossil remains of almost no scientists. Most often, they can only be found in small pieces of amber. This is how an ancient fossil mushroom was discovered in France, feeding on worms up to 5 mm long.
Scientists believe that even this prehistoric mushroom is still not the progenitor of modern ones. In the process of evolution, “killer” functions have degenerated so many times that they can’t be counted. Therefore, modern mushroom hunters are no longer relatives of prehistoric predators.
Classification of mushrooms by type of traps
Since some mushrooms are predatory creations of nature, they accordingly have some kind of hunting apparatus.
More precisely, there are several types:
- sticky heads, spherical in shape, located on the mycelium (characteristic of Monacrosporium ellipsosporum, A. entomophaga);
- sticky branching hyphae: such hunting devices have Arthrobotrys perpasta, Monacrosporium cionopagum;
- adhesive network-traps, consisting of a large number of rings, which are obtained by branching hyphae: such a hunting device has, for example, low-spore Artrobotris;
- mechanical hunting devices - prey squeezes them and dies: in this way snow-white Dactillaria preys on its victims.
Of course, this one is pretty brief information about which mushrooms are predatory and how they hunt. In fact, there are many more varieties of these microscopic hunters.
How do killer mushrooms hunt?
So, carnivorous mushrooms: how do they hunt and who eat? Mushrooms place their sticky trap rings in the soil and wait for small worms - nematodes. A large number of such rings create entire networks located around the mycelium. As soon as the worm touches the edge, it immediately sticks. The ring begins to shrink around the body of its victim, it is almost impossible to escape. Everything happens very quickly, in a split second.
GIFs penetrate the body of the captured worm and begin to grow. Even if the nematode somehow manages to escape, it won’t save her. The hyphae in her body grow so fast that within a day only a shell will remain from the worm. Together with the dying worm, the mycelium will “move” to a new place and again spread its nets.
If the killer mushroom lives in the water, then rotifers, amoeba, cyclops, and other inhabitants of the reservoir become its food. The principle of hunting is the same for them - the hyphae falls on its victim, penetrates inside and begins to grow in its body.
Unknown oyster mushrooms
Few people know, but the popular oyster mushrooms are also predatory mushrooms. They do not miss the opportunity to enjoy a gaping worm. Like other hunters, their mycelium dissolves its subordinate hyphae, which produce a rather toxic toxin.
This poison paralyzes the victim and the hyphae instantly sticks into it. After that, oyster mushroom calmly digests its prey. Oyster mushroom toxins act not only on nematodes. In the same way, they even eat enchitreids - rather large relatives of the earthworm. Contributes to this ostearin toxin produced by mushrooms. It will also not be greeted by shell-mites that accidentally find themselves nearby.
It turns out that these mushrooms are dangerous to eat? Not. Scientists claim that there is no toxic toxin in the fruit body of the fungus. The mechanism programmed by nature is needed by oyster mushrooms only for protection against pests - tardigrades, ticks and springtails.
Killer mushrooms are friends forever, but not always
Now let's talk about how a person uses predatory mushrooms. Can they be beneficial in economic activity or are they dangerous?
A mushroom hunter that destroys nematodes and other pests similar to it is certainly a friend of man. Severe soil contamination by nematodes is a great danger to crops. But since the mushrooms are predatory, they constantly need food, which pests become. So, mushroom hunters have long been an excellent alternative to very toxic drugs with anthelmintic action, the use of which leads not only to environmental pollution, but also increased resistance to poisons and mutations of the parasites themselves.
But carnivorous mushrooms are not always human friends. Since the X-XII century, mankind has known the disease, called in Western Europe "the fire of St. Anthony." In Russia, this ailment was called "evil cramps", which completely conveys the patient's condition. Symptoms of this disease are vomiting, loss of appetite, terrible pain in the intestines and stomach, weakness. In the most severe cases, curvature and necrosis of the extremities was observed, the meat was separated from the bones.
For a long time no one knew what caused this misfortune. Only after a long time it was found that the disease causes ergot, a predatory fungus that lives in ears of rye and forms black horns there. They contain a toxic substance - ergotin. Therefore, today the disease is called ergotism. You can’t use bread from such flour, since the poison retains its properties even at high temperature.
Conclusion
Now you know a little more. In particular, about what mushrooms are called predatory, how they hunt and how they can be useful or dangerous to humans. Besides the fact that it is just very interesting, it is quite possible that such knowledge will be useful to you in the future.