INSECTS AND SLUGS 
21 
earth, germinated at the end of two months, and produced 
mycelium. 
The pileus of the Dog Stinkhorn is red, a colour which 
probably acts as an additional lure to insects. In some 
foreign species the pileus is surrounded by a network 
resembling lace or coral, on which the visiting insects 
disport themselves. 
According to Cooke and Berkeley, the spores of fungi are 
devoured chiefly by Syrphidae, flies which also devour 
pollen. 
There is no definite arrangement for spore dispersal in 
the Sclerodermacese, and it seems probable that dispersion 
is entirely affected by beetles. The thick peridium does not 
easily rupture, and long before natural decay takes place it 
is riddled by various beetles. I am told by the Rev. E. N. 
Bloomfield that Cryptophagus lycoperdi is commonly found in 
Scleroderma vulgare. 
The mineralised cystidia of some fungi afford a certain 
amount of protection against visitation by slugs. Their 
absence in others, and the presence of attractive sugars 
instead, is suggestive that in these the visits of slugs are 
desirable, not only for the purpose of disseminating the 
spores, but also to insure ready germination. 
Voglino observed that spores which did not germinate in 
many media, germinated freely in the liquid contents of the 
digestive tract of a slug. He also discovered that by col¬ 
lecting slugs from fungi on which they were feeding, and 
placing them in an enclosed plot of ground, many more 
species of agarics appeared on this plot the following season 
than on the adjacent ground. 
Slugs, snails, and various insects, are favourite foods of 
many birds ;* therefore birds indirectly assist in spore dis- 
* See an important paper on the “Food of British Birds,” by 
Robert Newstead, in Volume XV. of the Journal of the Board of 
Agriculture. 
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