White Ants and Fungi. 



BY 



T. FETCH, B.A., B.Sc. 



"AyTR. T. Bainbriggo Fletcher, Government- Entomologist, 

 -'- *-L Coimbatorc, has called my attention to the following 

 note on a supposed association of white ants with a fungus, 

 which was published by General C. F. Sharpc in the Journal of 

 the Bombay Natural History Society, IX., pp. 228, 229 :— 



Deposits male, by White Ants. — Two yeai-s ago I wrote 

 to the Asian on the subject of a vagatable substaaca which 

 the white ants appear to deposit on the surface of the ground 

 here. I asked for information, but no one responded nor 

 does anyone here seem to know what it is. Natives told me 

 that it was a deposit made by white ants, and on turning over a 

 piece or two of the deposit I found white ants vmdemeath. The 

 natives then astonished me by saying that if I let the deposit 

 alone it would next morning be turned into fungi, and, sure enough, 

 all the little egg-like particles became small fungi an inch high 

 with heads up to the size of a four-anna bit. I ate some, and they 

 had all the flavom* of mushrooms, but are of a waxy white colour 

 all through. I have sent you in a small box a specimen of the 

 deposit. I have put a wet sponge in with it so that it may keep 

 moist on the journey, and perhaps some of the eggs will have 

 turned into small fungi by the time it reaches you. The deposit 

 is fiat and generally circular, seme patches the size of a rupee, 

 others about four inches diameter. Those I saw this morning are 

 on a well-frequented road, on the road itself, and a few patches 

 on the bank at the side. I have only native authority for it that 

 the deposit is the work of white ants, corroborated by my finding 

 white ants under the patches and in one case by the deposits 

 occurring where I knew white ants to be. Here the white ants 

 do not seem to betray their presence by throwing up earth as in 

 Northern India. — C. F. Sharpe, General. 



The omission of a description of the sporophore of the fungus 

 makes any attempt at identification somewhat uncertain, but 

 the details given apply exactly, so far as they go, to the 

 mycelium, sporophore, and habit of Entoloma microcavpum 

 B. and Br. The latter is a common species in Ceylon, and 

 probably one of the best known, as it is usuallythe" mushroom" 

 which the nativ^e cook serves up on toast. 



Entoloma microcarpum grows sometimes on lawns, but more 

 usually on bare patches of soil, in flower beds, along roadsides. 



.Annals'of the Royal Botanic Gardens. Peradeniya, Vol., V.. Part VT., Novembir. 1912. 



