OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
25 
This would account more satisfactorily for the facility with which manure develops 
a crop of fungi than by looking to chance distribution of the Spores by air after 
deposition of the manure. 
The true truffle, an underground edible fungus belonging- to the Ascomycet.es, 
may be found by means of pigs which, presumably attracted by the smell, search 
for it with their snouts and root it up. The truffle does not occur in Australia. 
Other Mammals. — Under the section dealing with the fungi developing after 
tires, reference will be found to the rooting up and eating of underground fungi 
of the genera MesoplieUia and Caxtoreum, belonging to the Gasforomyeetales 
in the Basidiomycetes, by wallabies, bandicoots, and apparently rabbits. These 
fungi have a strong pungent aromatic smell which is doubtless the attraction. 
The discarded outer husks will often be seen near the scratching^. 
Slugs and Snails. — It appears that slugs and snails find their food by means 
of the sense of smell, which sense in some ways at least is more acute than in 
man. Professor A. IT. R, Boiler* in an interesting article entitled “Slugs as 
Myc.ophagists, ’ ’ describes experiments he conducted in England, clearly showing 
that the slug Lima* maxvmus L,, which has been introduced into Australia, is 
attracted to fungi from a distance of 10ft. to 21ft. He says that it is probably 
attracted by a. sense of smell, as Dr. Paul Bartsch of the Smithsonian Institution, 
Washington, found some years ago that it is extraordinarily sensitive to certain 
gases, as, for instance, the fumes from a furnace, responding by characteristic, 
movements of it's tentacles. When later the United States entered the Great 
War and a gas detector was required, Dr. Bartsch recalled these experiments and 
tried the species with mustard gas. This it could detect in a dilution of 1 in 
10,000,000, whereas man reacts only to 1 in 4,000,000. Within two hours of this 
discovery, the allied forces were advised by cable that the slug might act as a 
gas detector! Some species of slugs are almost, entirely fungus eaters, and other 
species rarely touch such food. Dr. W. T. Elliott t has shown that such species 
as Amanita phalloides and A. niuscaria, poisonous to man, may be eaten by slugs. 
In Australia, mushrooms are often partly eaten by slugs, which may be found 
coiled up in the excavations they have made. A number of other species of our 
agarics arid some Bolrti have been noted as having been eaten by slugs. 1 have 
found an Australian snail, Jlelicarion robusi-us Gould, feeding- on a Puussuki (near 
I!, asurm Bros., or It. cyanoxantha Selmoff., FT.), at Neutral Bay, Sydney, and 
on another species of Russula at CT.atswood, both in February, 1SH8. 
Fungi Attracting Insects. — It has bean suggested, though I think without 
any foundation, that our large phosphorescent, toadstool, Plcuroius lam pas Berk., 
may attract night-flying insects by its luminescence, and that these may help 
m distributing the spores. I think that it is more likely that the luminescence 
lias arisen quite accidentally as a mutation, and that, like the brilliant colours of 
many species of fungi and even the poisonous principles found in some, it serves 
no special purpose in the maintenance of ihe species. If can also be said contrari- 
wise that the luminescence, bright colours and toxins probably do not handicap 
in any way the species possessing them. 
Many members of the phalloids, related to the puff-balls, and including the 
stink-horns and the lattice-work fungus (C lath ms) , have a strong offensive smell 
of carrion which may attract insects. In the Australian specimens 1 have 
collected, I have not noted, however, any definite attraction of flies. When visited 
by insects, these are believed to aid in the distribution of the spores, both by 
eating the offensive slime (gleba) in which the spores Hire entangled, and by 
getting their legs find mouth parts soiled. 
Decaying agarics, including mushrooms, have a strong smell. This may 
account, in part at least, for the development in them of maggots from the eggs 
laid by flies. There are, however, certain species of flies which normally breed 
in Meshy fungi. Often one or more of these long-bodied flies may be seen perched 
on the cap of fresh agarics, presumably depositing eggs. Here no smell of decay 
seems the source of attraction. The various maggots, when mature or when the 
source of food-supply is exhausted, pupate in the ground below. They can be 
readily bred out by providing in a jar dry soil underneath a decaying fungus 
containing the larvae, and covering with mosquito-netting to catch the emerging 
flies. The following species of flies breeding in agarics in Australia have been 
*Brit. Mycfliblgicsil Sih\. Trims., 1920, AIL, p. 270. 
tBrit. Mycolngieal Soc., Trans., 1922, VIII., p. 8-i. 
