Fungivore
[1] At least 22 species of primate, including humans, bonobos, colobines, gorillas, lemurs, macaques, mangabeys, marmosets and vervet monkeys are known to feed on fungi.
A natural consequence of this is the virtual absence of obligate vertebrate fungivores, with the diprotodont family Potoridae being the major exception.
Among them are the Philomycidae (e. g. Philomycus carolinianus and Phylomicus flexuolaris) and Ariolimacidae (Ariolimax californianus), which respectively feed on slime molds (myxomycetes) and mushrooms (basidiomycetes).
Witte & Maschwitz found that their diet consisted almost entirely of mushrooms, representing a previously undiscovered feeding strategy in ants.
[6] Several beetle families, including the Erotylidae, Endomychidae, and certain Tenebrionidae[7] also are specialists on fungi, though they may eat other foods occasionally.
The ascomycete, Phaeangium lefebvrei found in north Africa and the Middle East is eaten by migrating birds in winter and early spring, mainly by species of lark (Alaudidae).
Emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae) will eat immature Lycoperdon and Bovista fungi if presented to them as will brush turkeys (Alectura lathami) if offered Mycena, suggesting that species of Megapodiidae may feed opportunistically on mushrooms.
[16] Trichoderma are able to digest sclerotia, durable structures which contain food reserves, which is important if they are to control pathogenic fungi in the long term.
[15] Trichoderma species have been recorded as protecting crops from Botrytis cinerea, Rhizoctonia solani, Alternaria solani, Glomerella graminicola, Phytophthora capsici, Magnaporthe grisea and Colletotrichum lindemuthianum; although this protection may not be entirely due to Trichoderma digesting these fungi, but by them improving plant disease resistance indirectly.
[16] Bacterial mycophagy was a term coined in 2005, to describe the ability of some bacteria to "grow at the expense of living fungal hyphae".
It is likely that these two systems act synergistically, with the toxins killing or inhibiting the fungi and exoenzymes degrading the cell wall and digesting the fungus.
Some of them, for example Candidatus Glomeribacter gigasporarum, which colonises the spores of Gigaspora margarita, have reduced genome sizes indicating that they have become entirely dependent on the metabolic functions of the fungal cells in which they live.
G. acuta first attaches themselves to a hyphae or sporangium via a feeding tube and then a ring-shaped structure, around 2 μm in diameter is observed to appear on the fungus, possibly consisting of degraded cell wall material.
Microtubules are visible in the feeding tube, as are possible reserves of cell membrane, which may be used to form food vacuoles filled with the cytoplasm of the fungus, via endocytosis, which are then transported back into G. acuta.
Some plants are only dependent on fungi as a source of sugars during the early stages of their development, these include most of the orchids as well as many ferns and lycopods.
[20] Three insect lineages, beetles, ants and termites, independently evolved the ability to farm fungi between 40 and 60 million years ago.
Worker termites eat plant matter, producing faecal pellets which they continuously place on top of the cone.
[25] The fungus grows into this material and soon produces immature mushrooms, a rich source of protein, sugars and enzymes, which the worker termites eat.
[23][27] The marine snail Littoraria irrorata, which lives in the salt marshes of the southeast of the United States feeds on fungi that it encourages to grow.
It creates and maintains wounds on the grass, Spartina alterniflora which are then infected by fungi, probably of the genera Phaeosphaeria and Mycosphaerella, which are the preferred diet of the snail.
They also deposit faeces on the wounds that they create, which encourage the growth of the fungi because they are rich in nitrogen and fungal hyphae.
Juvenile snails raised on uninfected leaves do not grow and are more likely to die, indicating the importance of the fungi in the diet of L. irrorata.
