Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site pluto.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!petsd!pesnta!phri!pluto!warren From: warren@pluto.UUCP (Warren Burstein) Newsgroups: net.cooks Subject: Meat-eating mushrooms Message-ID: <165@pluto.UUCP> Date: Thu, 31-Oct-85 11:58:10 EST Article-I.D.: pluto.165 Posted: Thu Oct 31 11:58:10 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 3-Nov-85 05:08:36 EST Organization: Industrial Automation Systems Inc., New York, N.Y. Lines: 16 Keywords: mycology Summary: redirected from net.bizarre From _The_Readers'_Digest_ Scientists have found that certain edible mushrooms capture and consume microscopic animals. Chief among them is the oyster mushroom, a fungus that sits benignly until a roundworm crawls into the neighborhood - usually a rotting tree stump. The fungi release a paralyzing toxin, buying time to grow threadlike shoots into their prey, which they then digest. Of 27 mushrooms tested, 11 attack and eat tiny animals. According to biologists R.G. Thorn and G.L. Barron, who conducted the tests at the University of Guelph in Ontario, the ability to feed on worms enables these species to thrive in such difficult places as rotting wood, where nitrogen is in short supply. -H.E.M. in _American_Health_