J. Acad. Indus. Res. Vol. 1(3) August 2012 137 ©Youth Education and Research Trust (YERT) Kumar & Kaviyarasan, 2012 ISSN: 2278-5213 Carnivorous Mushroom from Eastern Ghats M. Kumar 1 and V. Kaviyarasan 2 1 Dept. of Plant Biology and Plant Biotechnology, Madras Christian College, Tambaram, Chennai-600059 2 Lab No. 404, CAS in Botany, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai-600025 mycologykumar@gmail.com; + 91 9962840270 ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract Hohenbuehelia is a common nematophagous mushroom usually occurring on dead woods is now suspected and found that, it has also developed the tendency to feed on the insects too. It has been collected and identified from Kolli Hills, Eastern Ghats, India. Keywords: Hohenbuehelia, nematophagous mushroom, insects, Kolli Hills, Eastern Ghats. Introduction Hohenbuehelia is a nematophagous fungus known to be edible, but rather tough (Tom volk, 2000). It has also been portrayed as carnivorous fungi (Thorn and Barron, 1984; Tom volk, 2000). It is a pleurotoid mushroom grows on wood or on woody debris and is usually without stipe. It has white spore prints and often smells pleasant and taste mealy. The key characteristic features of the genus include glutinous pileus, metuloid cystidia, gelatinous context and a nematophagous tendency. The term ‘nematophagous’ is the ability to feed on nematodes especially, the species of Hohenbuehelia (Tom volk, 2000). Hohenbuehelia looks similar with Pleurotus and Crepidotus, there's often no stipe and attached laterally or eccentrically to the substrate. Hohenbuehelia has very narrow, crowded gills that are decurrent and the white spore distinguishes it from Crepidotus which is a dark spored species. When compared with Pleurotus it usually has much thinner flesh rather a thick flesh in Pleurotus. There are also some significant microscopic differences between the two genera. The easiest way to distinguish Hohenbuehelia from Pleurotus is that, Hohenbuehelia has a gelatinous layer between the context and the cap cuticle. Below the pilepellis there is roughly parallel hyphae embedded in a gelatinous matrix. This gelatinous layer makes this mushroom much more rubbery and tougher in texture. Below that is the context or flesh of the pileus and followed by the gill. Another distinguishing feature is the presence of metuloid cystidia in the hymenium. The metuloid cystidia of this species do not have horns or pronge like that of Pluteus instead it has a dense coating of crystals on their surface. These also have much thicker walls. Both Hohenbuehelia and Pleurotus can supplement their protein needs by trapping nematodes, which are small flat worms that are very abundant in wood and soil (Thorn and Barron, 1984; Hibbett and Thorn, 1994). During our biodiversity studies in Eastern and Western Ghats of South India it has been collected in troops on dead wood found in Solakkadu region of Kolli hills, Tamil Nadu. Hohenbuehelia, previously known to feed on nematodes, now found to feed even on insects based on the observations made in the field. This species, Hohenbuehelia petaloides has already been reported from, Lucknow, Chennai, Alagar hills, Orrisa and Kerala (Manjula, 1983). Materials and methods Macroscopic characters of fresh specimens were noted after the collection. Photographs of the fresh specimens were taken both in the collection place as well as in the laboratory (Atri et al., 2003; Kaviyarasan et al., 2009). Spore print was taken to know the colour of the spore. Kornerup and Wanscher’s (1978) book was followed to determine colour of the fresh specimens. The terms for the description are was that of Largent (1986) and in some cases Vellinga (1998). The specimens were tagged with collection number and dried in electric drier and were preserved in sealed polythene bags along with naphthalene balls in order to protect from insect and pest attack. The preserved specimen was revived in 3–5% Potassium hydroxide (KOH) or 10% (NaOH) solution. Stains such as cresyl blue, cotton blue and 1% aqueous phloxine were used. Amyloidity reaction of spores and tissues were studied using Melzer’s reagent (chloral hydrate–100 g; potassium iodide– 5 g and distilled water (100 mL). The basidiospore shape was determined according to the Q- coefficient (length-width ratio) (Bas, 1969) of at least 20 randomly selected but mature basidiospores. The measurement does not include the apiculus and were made in KOH at 2000X with a calibrated optical micrometer in a trinocular Labomed (CXL plus) microscope. The line diagrams were drawn with the aid of POM prism type camera lucida. Photographs of some of the microscope structures have also been taken. RESEARCH M ANUSCRIPT