20 
METHODS OF SPORE DISPERSAL 
known edible truffles are systematically obtained by hunters, 
who train dogs, and sometimes pigs, to find them. The Wilt¬ 
shire truffle-hunters (or “trufflers,” as they term themselves) 
assert that squirrels are very fond of these fungi. Berkeley 
observed that a beetle (Leiodes) attacks the truffle, and 
“ certainly does not improve its flavour.” Mr. Alfred 
Collins, a well-known Wiltshire truffler, writes me: “ Some 
older trufflers have told me the spore is carried about by a 
small insect known to us as the truffle-beetle. It is a small 
brown insect, and eats the truffles in holes sometimes almost 
like a sponge, but whether it is a carrier of the spore or not 
I don’t know.” He sent me some of the beetles, which 
Mr. H. T. G. Watkins has kindly identified as Anistoma cin- 
namomea (Leiodes cinnamomea). It is highly probable that this 
beetle plays a far more important part in the distribution of 
truffles than is at present supposed. The strong smell 
noticeable in Lentinus cochleatus , Clitocybe odor a, and many 
other agarics, possibly serves as a lure for insects. 
It has been noted above that the spores of certain dung- 
loving Discomycetes are dispersed by mammals after they 
have been ejected upon the surrounding herbage. There is 
also a certain amount of evidence that the passage of the 
spore through the alimentary canal of some animal is neces¬ 
sary in some species to insure germination. Berkeley 
thought that the almost universal distribution of the common 
edible mushroom “accompanied the introduction of the 
horse in various countries.” It is well known that mush¬ 
rooms (i.e., Agarictis arvensis) always appear in fields where 
horses are regularly kept. 
Perhaps the most familiar examples of spore dispersal by 
insects are afforded by the Phalloidaceae, or Stinkhorn Fungi. 
Their spores are immersed in a highly fetid gluten, the 
whole forming a delectable repast for flies and wasps, whose 
excrements have been observed to be almost exclusively 
composed of spores, which, when placed in tubes on sterilised 
