Herbivore dung - Have a dung day!

[CapAndBracket]

This was collected last Wednesday at Barley heath, on pony buns each black fruit body < 1mm, initially very difficult to get anything useful under the scope as immature.


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Today they are maturing, the spores intially (centre of image) look like worms with many segments along their length.


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Another image showing basically how they are arranged 8 per asci.


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As they mature the centre section of each spore becomes a black lump while the sections either
side become hyaline sticky appendages to the spore, this presumably is so on ejection from
the asci the spores will hopefully stick to some plant ready to be eaten by the ponies.

From Ellis + Ellis, this species is Cercophora coprophila, the image of the ripe spore isn't as good
as i would like so a selection of fruit bodies are now moistened upside down on a glass slide in
the hope some will eject and stick there without other material and then see if i can get them
to take a stain to show the features clearly

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Partial success.


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Using congo red i find does reveal the sticky appendage each side of the
the central cellular structure which will become the spore, but does not
show the segments within the central structure.


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Whereas using cotton blue does show up the segments of the central structure but hardly shows
the sticky appendages, (one is just about visible top right as a clear line).


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Partially formed spores, it looks as though the cells of the centre section gradually aggregate
together to form the spore.


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Near completion, it looks like the markings on the spore are the former cellular divisions which
have aggregated into one large cell (the spore), need better microscopy and stain.


Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Still trying.


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I think this time really caught the sticky appendages (look like tails) and
really not what we expect fungal spores to look like!


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Mature spore, the transformation is quite remarkable.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Yesterday noticed a fungi emerging on dung sample.



Thought oh maybe a concybe in captivity, then it got forgoten until this
evening when to my surprise what a size.



Now thinking maybe Panaeolus semiovatus!



cheers J.P.

[cybershot]

Needs a lot more nutrient, natural light etc., to get to the 7cm cap size of the others found in the wild at Castle Bottom but what a perfect little specimen to have cultured at home on that dung you collected. Well done mate!

David

[CapAndBracket]

Thank's for that, i put maybe next the ID just in case it's more interesting,
hopefully i will have some time to get it under the scope on Friday.
The others from castle bottom (started as white discs, now pink cusions)
are still a mystery to me, will they ripen more and becomes obvious ?

This is one of those pastimes that sometimes Pass.............time and still
confused, but then there are the great moments like the recent posts, can't
understand why more havn't joined in

Cheers J.P.

[Nettle Runner]

JP, I suspect that it is because you are in a league of your own.

That's not to say that we don't follow, with great interest, your reports and findings.

Les

[FungiJohn]

Originally Posted by Nettle Runner

JP, I suspect that it is because you are in a league of your own.

That's not to say that we don't follow, with great interest, your reports and findings.

Les

I agree Les and given the number of views of this thread, there's a large interested audience in JP's work. It's quite unique!

John

[CapAndBracket]

Now, now, you are being far to kind, i hope the thread illustrates an amateurs bumbbling struggle with the supject, and anyone can achieve this much.

So many ID queries end with microscopy needed, and this does look an unapproachable hurdle to many people, having had an affordable scope for a few months i can say it's well worth the struggle because of the new world it opens up.
But there is certainly a lack of information on microscopy, and i'm hopeing to work out how and why the stains interact with the organic material so we can better understand what we are looking at, the recent posting of different stains used on same material high light the curious differences that can be seen, it must be significant but as yet i know not why.

Cheers J.P.

[FungiJohn]

Originally Posted by CapAndBracket

Now, now, you are being far to kind, i hope the thread illustrates an amateurs bumbbling struggle with the supject, and anyone can achieve this much.

So many ID queries end with microscopy needed, and this does look an unapproachable hurdle to many people, having had an affordable scope for a few months i can say it's well worth the struggle because of the new world it opens up.
But there is certainly a lack of information on microscopy, and i'm hopeing to work out how and why the stains interact with the organic material so we can better understand what we are looking at, the recent posting of different stains used on same material high light the curious differences that can be seen, it must be significant but as yet i know not why.

Cheers J.P.

I wonder if Nick has or can suggest something on the microscopy side?

I started to write a basic introduction to fungi microscopy and staining techniques but got bogged down quite early with my own limited knowledge

John