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Zoological aids to fungus collecting
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Volume 8, Part 3, August 1994 The Birdfood Standards Association (BSA) has recently been formed by a group of concerned companies involved in birdfood supply and is supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the British Trust for Ornithology. BSA has recently investigated an initiative aiming to protect garden birds from aflatoxin poisoning. Nuts approved as 'Superior Safe Nuts' by BSA will have been screened for aflatoxin and have 'nil detectable' levels. Additionally, to be sold as such the aflatoxin certificate must be less than 3 months old. These nuts must also conform to standards of quality, moisture content and hygiene laid down by BSA. For a 'Safe Nuts' seal
of approval the level of aflotoxin, if present, will not exceed 5ppb (parts per billion). Hopefully the introduction of these standards together with increasing public awareness will hope to protect our birds from dangerous fungal products through the use of standard food supplies. By offering potentially harmful nuts to our birds we may well be inadvertently and unintentionally killing them through kindness. SUSAN ISAAC Department of Genetics & Microbiology, Life Sciences Building, University of Liverpool, Liverpool ~69 2BX
ZOOLOGICAL AIDS TO FUNGUS COLLECTING J.E.M. MORDUE International Mycological Institute, Bakeham Lane, Egham, Surrey TW20 9TY Anyone who collects rusts or powdery mildews regularly will from time to time see little maggots associated with the fungal spores. These, Dr. Keith Harris ofthe CAB International Institute of Entomology tells me, are larvae of Mycodiplosis (Diptera, Cecidomiidae); there are about 16 species that feed on rusts and powdery mildews in Europe, but they cannot readily be distinguished from each other in the larval state. The photograph shows larvae feeding on aecia of Puccinia coronata on Rhamnus catharticus; the colour of
Mycodiplosis larvae feeding on aecia of Puccinia coronata on Rhamnus. (Photo: G. Godwin) .
the creatures is due to the pigments of the rust spores. Although only about 2 mm long when fully grown, the larvae are much bigger than individual sori of many rusts. The fern rusts in particular have small, inconspicuous sori with colourless spores (some recent records, and SEM pictures of these fungi are to be found in Hick & Preece, 1990). When collecting Milesina blechni on Blechnum and M. kriegeriana on Dryopteris (described by Wilson & Henderson (1966) as 'frequent and overlooked' and 'scarce but overlooked' respectively) in Old Church Wood near Monmouth during the 1992 Spring Foray I found Mycodiplosis larvae (colourless, of course, because feeding on colourless spores) much easier to spot than the rust sori themselves. Mycodiplosis species are not, traditionally, thought to have any economic significance. However, when faced with a heavy infestation such as the one illustrated it is difficult to avoid thinking that there must be an effect on the rust population and therefore on the incidence of plant disease: a natural biological control. References Hick, A.J. & Preece, T.F. (1990) Scanning electron microscope photographs of the sori and spores of six species of rust fungi (Uredinales) found on ferns in Britain. Fern Gazette 13 (6): 321-328. Wilson, M. & Henderson, D.M. (1966) British Rust Fungi. Cambridge University Press.
Volume 8, Part 3, August 1994 The Birdfood Standards Association (BSA) has recently been formed by a group of concerned companies involved in birdfood supply and is supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the British Trust for Ornithology. BSA has recently investigated an initiative aiming to protect garden birds from aflatoxin poisoning. Nuts approved as 'Superior Safe Nuts' by BSA will have been screened for aflatoxin and have 'nil detectable' levels. Additionally, to be sold as such the aflatoxin certificate must be less than 3 months old. These nuts must also conform to standards of quality, moisture content and hygiene laid down by BSA. For a 'Safe Nuts' seal
of approval the level of aflotoxin, if present, will not exceed 5ppb (parts per billion). Hopefully the introduction of these standards together with increasing public awareness will hope to protect our birds from dangerous fungal products through the use of standard food supplies. By offering potentially harmful nuts to our birds we may well be inadvertently and unintentionally killing them through kindness. SUSAN ISAAC Department of Genetics & Microbiology, Life Sciences Building, University of Liverpool, Liverpool ~69 2BX
ZOOLOGICAL AIDS TO FUNGUS COLLECTING J.E.M. MORDUE International Mycological Institute, Bakeham Lane, Egham, Surrey TW20 9TY Anyone who collects rusts or powdery mildews regularly will from time to time see little maggots associated with the fungal spores. These, Dr. Keith Harris ofthe CAB International Institute of Entomology tells me, are larvae of Mycodiplosis (Diptera, Cecidomiidae); there are about 16 species that feed on rusts and powdery mildews in Europe, but they cannot readily be distinguished from each other in the larval state. The photograph shows larvae feeding on aecia of Puccinia coronata on Rhamnus catharticus; the colour of
Mycodiplosis larvae feeding on aecia of Puccinia coronata on Rhamnus. (Photo: G. Godwin) .
the creatures is due to the pigments of the rust spores. Although only about 2 mm long when fully grown, the larvae are much bigger than individual sori of many rusts. The fern rusts in particular have small, inconspicuous sori with colourless spores (some recent records, and SEM pictures of these fungi are to be found in Hick & Preece, 1990). When collecting Milesina blechni on Blechnum and M. kriegeriana on Dryopteris (described by Wilson & Henderson (1966) as 'frequent and overlooked' and 'scarce but overlooked' respectively) in Old Church Wood near Monmouth during the 1992 Spring Foray I found Mycodiplosis larvae (colourless, of course, because feeding on colourless spores) much easier to spot than the rust sori themselves. Mycodiplosis species are not, traditionally, thought to have any economic significance. However, when faced with a heavy infestation such as the one illustrated it is difficult to avoid thinking that there must be an effect on the rust population and therefore on the incidence of plant disease: a natural biological control. References Hick, A.J. & Preece, T.F. (1990) Scanning electron microscope photographs of the sori and spores of six species of rust fungi (Uredinales) found on ferns in Britain. Fern Gazette 13 (6): 321-328. Wilson, M. & Henderson, D.M. (1966) British Rust Fungi. Cambridge University Press.