Herbivore dung - Have a dung day!

[CapAndBracket]

Originally Posted by fairplay

J P, have a closer look at the discomycete again and see if you can find any fine hairs on it with a hand lens.

I think what you may have is a species of Cheilymenia and some of the pigment could be washed out so don't rule out orange species.

Neil.

Thank's for your helpfull comments, they are always appreciated, the lack of setae on the cups/discs is what was keeping Chelymenia out of the running, for the same reason i excluded a Lasiobolus for which the asci/spores seemed a good fit.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Myconick, your knowledge is astounding, i will wait for species to mature and put some back under the scope, interesting comments about asci firing, earlier in this study i had some Saccobolus under the scope and noticed that some of the asci popped out while sat on a slide (no cover slip, low power) i concluded that what was setting them of was my breathing which eaither caused a draught or drop in air pressure around them.

Cheers J.P.

PS: remember a slide show containing peutorican fungi .

[CapAndBracket]

Growing on one cow dung lump from start of this study, Coprinus patouillardii, time i lift the lump out of box to photograph it flagged, so they are very sensitive to humidity, i.e. it was more humid in the sandwich box, i'm going to leave dung lump out of box and see if smaller fruit body in background will grow on for photo.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

X1000

Spores from perious post.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

On lifting dung lump from box, this was growing on the hand towel, i'm hopeing it will straighten up a fruit ok now, it looks like juvenile coprinus niveus at the moment !

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

X1000

Struggled with little (cloudy white) blobs (less than 0.5mm) this morning on deer pellets, didn't manage an in focus photo of fruit body, but above is an asci from one.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

X1000

A couple of spores out of asci are well marked, the description and especially size of spores fit with Ascobolus sacchariferus (Richardson+Watling), but i think i will defer certainty in case they are immature, did put deer pellets outside for one of the passing showers. (gess fungi get thirsty).

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Originally Posted by mykonik

Hi JP !

This is a species of Ascobolus, common on 'old' cow dung [that's old dung, not necessarily dung from an old cow, although I suppose it might be !] - it is probably Ascobolus furfuraceus which is very common on this substrate but there are other species so it should be looked at microscopically as always.

You might be interested to know that the spores of this are 'large' (comparitively) and also a very dark purplish in colour - when mature and in sufficient quantity the whole apothecium is coloured purplish-brown by their presence and (if you are quick) you can make them discharge by poking the apothecium with a needle - when you do this the whole apothecium visibly turns back to pale green since the coloured spores are no longer in the asci, affecting the overall colour.

Nick

Spot on again mykomick. takeing note of your remarks regarding spore discharge, i got a bit clever (or was it simple) for collecting spores. I just pressed a slide down on the apothicia, removed, turned over, drop of water, coverslip, firm down, apply immersion oil (1 drop) and onto stage of scope.

They average approximately 25x14 um, so perfect for Ascobolus furfurasceus (say that with a stutter) and above the range for A.perplexus which could have confounded the ID.

I must say pleased with the photo, this was one of those moments when a scope is a joy to look down.

Should add in case anyone is wondering, yes they really look like the photo, they are in water, no stain used.

Cheers J.P.

[NickCantle]

Lovely photo mate Sounds like you're coming to some excellent conclusions because of microscopy

[fairplay]

Well done J.P. all you have to do now is cover them in molten chocolate and you have yourself a meal !

Neil.

[CapAndBracket]

Having never noticed Ascobolus furfuraceus before i now find they are abundant, also little orange specks in photo that may prove interesting.

As for the spores, i wonder if they could be marketed as the must have spice
just need a fancy name and a fancy price. (were there's muck there's money)

Cheers J.P.

[fairplay]

Is there no end to J.P.s talent, he's a poet as well now.

As for his entrepreneur marketing skills, hmmmmm..

Neil.

[CapAndBracket]

This may prove interesting, the yellow cup has no setae (bristles) around it's rim.
Notice to it's right (edge of photo) the tiny pale green blobs, these appear to have protruding asci, so could be some more intersting spores.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

X1000

This is quite amazing, the tiny blobs from pervious photo, have the biggest asci so far, the image at X1000 magnifycation contains only part of the asci and a few of it's spores, note lot's of granular material appears to be visible within the asci (being hyaline this maybe material under the asci but i think not as it is in focus), this could make the species very interesting to study, if only i can come up with a way to grow these things in pure culture. (no stain used).

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

X400

The Ascobolus immersus asci with spores at only X400 magnifycation, gess they could be described as some what clavate (club shapped).
(ID, using info from Richardson +Watling).

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Lasiobolus macrotrichus on cow dung, i have put the images in unidentified section hopeing to get some better ones over weekend!

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

X1000

Lasiobolus machrotrichus paraphyses and asci, you can see where the fruit body gets it's colour from, the paraphyses are neither clavate (club shapped) or forked which rules out the other two lasiobolus species (Richardson + Watling).

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

The frilly skirting on these looks distinctive !, thinking Psathyrella.sp.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Woops, think before typing, Panaeolus papilionaceus.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Peziza bovina, i thought these had dissapeared for the year but the recent rains have brought them back. There were lots of panaeolus on dung this evening, so now you all have the weekend ahead to search, happy hunting.

Cheers J.P.

[Leif]

Originally Posted by CapAndBracket

Woops, think before typing, Panaeolus papilionaceus.

Cheers J.P.

Panaeolus sphinctrinus has a frilly margin, and similar stem patterning.

Ahhh, just checked the Basidiomycota checklist, and the current name of that species is Panaeolus papilionaceus var. papilionaceus.

[CapAndBracket]

I'm thinking Panaeolus acumiatus for this one, but have set it on slide for spores.

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Saccobolus glaber on cow dung, tiny yellow blobs.



A gentle squash at x100 magnifycation and the mature spores can be seen as purple groups of 8, with hyaline (clear) immature spores in asci making up the background.



At x400 magnifycation it is all that bit clearer to pick out the features mentioned above.



At X1000 magnifycation the surface of spores can be seen as relatively smooth, free from linear markings or warts on the surface, the average measurement of spores is approx 25X12 um.

Can only wonder what evolutionary advantage this genus found in keeping the spores stuck together as a group, when other species have not copied the trait!

Cheers J.P.

[mykonik]

Originally Posted by CapAndBracket

I'm thinking Panaeolus acumiatus for this one, but have set it on slide for spores.

Cheers J.P.

No, that's (by the look of it) a species of Conocybe JP - are the gills cinnamon coloured ?

Nick

[CapAndBracket]

You are right, luckaly i was uncertain enough to set one up for spore print.
Average sprore size 19X10.5 um, i think now it's Conocybe pubescens (have changed the name on photo in gallery).

Cheers J.P.