THE RED SQUIRREL AS A MYCOPHAGIST 203 



pine infections were just about to produce pycnia for the first 

 time, it was noted by several observers that squirrels ate the 

 swollen bark from the infected parts of the branch." One of his 

 photographs shows the blister-bearing (aecidial) central area of 

 a disease spot in place at the base of a whorl of branches on a 



FIG. 73. Armillaria mellea, the Honey Fungus, a species readily eaten 

 by the Red Squirrel of North America. The upper pileus has formed 

 a white spore-deposit upon the lower one. Photographed at 

 Scarborough, England, by A. E. Peck. Natural size. 



tree-trunk, with the outer surrounding pycnidial zone eaten away 

 by squirrels ; and a second photograph of a tree-trunk shows 

 that squirrels had eaten away those parts of the bark where pycnidia 

 were forming presumably for the first time. Spaulding states 

 that the squirrels run over the fruiting cankers and pick up aecidio- 

 spores on their fur and feet, so that to some extent they doubtless 

 act as local carriers for the Rust fungus, thus helping to spread 

 the Blister Rust disease. 



