CHAPTER III 



THE SOUND MADE BY FUNGUS GUNS AND A SIMPLE METHOD 

 FOR RENDERING AUDIBLE THE PUFFING OF DISCOMYCETES 



Fungus Projectiles — Type I : Sphaerobolus — Type II : Pilobolus — Type III : 

 Ascobolus — Type IV : Peziza — A Simple Method for Rendering Audible the 

 Puffing of Discomycetes — Type V : Empusa and Entomophthora, Uredineae 

 and Hymenomycetes — Sounds Made by Fungus Guns are of No Biological 

 Significance. 



Fungus Projectiles. — The various projectiles of fungi, in order of 

 size, may be classified, as follows : 



I. A gleba, containing a great number of sjDores, as in Sphaero- 

 bolus stellatus, 

 II. A sporangium, containing about 50,000 spores, with 

 sporangiophore-sap attached, as in Pilobolus, 

 III. An aggregation of eight spores forming a single mass, 



together with ascus-sap, as in Ascobolus immersus, 

 IV. A chain of eight spores which breaks up into its eight com- 

 ponents on leaving the ascus, as in Peziza and Pustularia, 

 and 

 V. Single spores, as in the conidia of Empusa and Entomoph- 

 thora, and as in the basidiospores of the Uredineae and 

 Hymenomycetes. 

 Type I : Sphaerobolus. — ^The gleba of Sjihaerobolus stellatus — 

 the largest known fungus projectile — is a viscid, smooth, dark, 

 spherical body, 1-1 -25 mm. in diameter (Vol. V, Fig. 145, p. 294), 

 and it is cast out of the Sphaerobolus gun (Vol. V, Fig. 172, c, p. 361) 

 by a catapult mechanism which has already been described.^ The 

 gun, when about to discharge its projectile, is 2-2 • 5 mm. in diameter. 

 Its maximum horizontal range, as measured by myself, was found 



1 These Researches, Vol. V, 1933, pp. 310-325. 



325 



