Sept., 1923 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
33 
A PIECE OF FUNGUS. 
Polyporus Portentosus. 
(By E. Illidge.) 
This WHS pieked uji by one of us in the Mt. CootiiH 
Keserve. it look(*d like a bit of dry bread thrown out: 
from the kiosk, but a very little examination shewed it to 
be a piece of what is known to bushmen as ‘Tunk/’ a 
kind of funpfus which i^rows on the sides of j>um-trees, 
mostly of the smootli-bark varitdies, as gray-p:um and 
spotted ^um, sometimes low doAvii, but mostly high up, 
out of reach. Tn the early days of Queensland, when 
bushmen carried their metal box of tinder with flint and 
steel, this was the usual mattwial which formed the con- 
tents of the box. When freshly obtained, and in good 
eondition, it has not the s])Ongiose appearance exhibited 
by this fragment, but is of a soft, slightly coriaceous 
texture, and perhaps more like fine eork than anything 
else. Tl is extremely light, and takes fire very readily 
from the sparks thrown off wluui flijit and steel are 
struck sharply together. The ai)ongiose eondition of this 
particular piece forming the subject of our remarks has 
been caused by the depredations of the larvae of beetles 
belonging to the family of the Erotylidae, illustrated 
herewith hy seven s^:»eeies, five of which belong to genus 
Thallis, and two to genus Episeapliula. There are other! 
species of these arboreal fungi, one of which is of a hai'd. 
woody nature, dark brown, and found at the base of 
stems of the scrub box. usually a very large tree. It is 
infested by a beetle of another family, the Tenebrionidae, 
in all stages, ajul is a spiudes of Byrsax. On smooth 
‘•viaces. also said to be fungoid, (ui the otherwise rough 
of the Tower part ttf the same sernb-box. other t(‘no- 
brionids are found, as the largt* and. strange Zoyiherosis 
georgii. whieli has been aptly termed the iron-bark 
beetle, because of the hardiness of its integument, which 
can only be pierced by steel pins, as also from its simi- 
larity to the bark of the ironbark gum. on which it is. 
however, not found. 
Thallis insueta sometimes appears in thousands on a 
fungus. esp(*(dan>^ from the' roots of great iron-bark and 
stringy-barl< 1i*fM‘S. just burnt doAvii. whilst the 
ground is still so liot that it. is risky to 
Avalk on. The fungus is • of a jelly-like coiisis- 
tenee. in large white masses radiating from the centre. 
