Zoophagus
ZOOPHAGUS Sommerstorff, 1911 (Österreichische Botanische Zeitschrift 61:372) emend. Dick, 1990 (Mycological research 94:352), 5 species (Dick, 1990; Morikawa et al., 1993; Sommerstorff, 1911).
Ectoparasites of loricate rotifers and nematodes. Vegetative mycelium producing short lateral branches with adhesive tips or knobs that trap host animals which then are completely filled with parasite hyphae. Spores long-fusiform unispored merosporangia, ends tapered, apex with one or two septa with the apical cell often devoid of cytoplasm, apex with adhesive material; apical cell usually simple but may be branched. Zygospores smooth-walled; suspensors hyphoid.
Type species: Z. insidians
Species of Zoophagus:
Z. cornus S.L. Glockling, 1997 (Mycological Research 101:1179) (Glockling, 1997).
Z. insidians Sommerstorff, 1911 (Österreichische Botanische Zeitschrift 61: 372) (Arnaudow, 1925; see also Abro et al., 1989—polyols Cephaliophora musicola; Coffell et al., 1990—Biochemical evidence, = Cephaliophora musicola; Dick, 1990 = Cephaliophora musicola; Drechsler, 1945:21; Fuller and Jaworski, 1987 = Zoophagus insidians]; Mirande, 1920; Morikawa et al., 1993; Powell et al. 1990 [Figs. 1-3, 5-10, 12, 14-22 = Cephaliophora musicola]; Prowse, 1954; Saikawa et al. 1988; Sommerstorff, 1911; Tanabe et al. 1999—phylogeny of Z. insidians and Cephaliophora; Whisler and Travland, 1974 [Figs. 1-12—rotifer trap = Cephaliophora musicola.
Z. pectosporus (Drechsler) Dick, 1990 (Mycological Research 94:352) (Drechsler, 1962; Das-Gupta and Shome, 1965; Dick 1990; Liu et al., 1998; Miura, 1967; Powell et al., 1990).
≡ Acaulopage pectospora Drechsler, 1962 (American Journal of Botany 49:1089) (Das-Gupta and Shome, 1965; Drechsler, 1962; Miura, 1967; Saikawa and Morikawa, 1985; Saikawa et al., 1988).
Z. tentaclum Karling, 1936 (Mycologia 28:308; nomen nudum, no Latin diagnosis) (Karling, 1936; Dick, 1990).
Z. tylopagus X.-z. Liu, Z.-q. Miao, R.-h. Gao & K.-q. Zhang, 1998 (Mycosystema 17:105) (Liu et al. 1998).
Many recent studies (Whisler and Travland, 1974; Abro et al., 1990; Dick, 1990; Powell et al., 1990) of Zoophagus insidians were published using a culture (65-6 Warner, = ATCC 48646) that was identified as the latter taxon but it is really Cephaliophora musicola Barron, Morikawa & Saikawa (Barron et al., 1990). The nematophagus species of Cephaliophora are septate, produce anastomoses, and when observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) the septa have Woronin bodies and the capture branches are more or less smooth-walled (Barron et al., 1990; Morikawa et al., 1993). The hyphae of Zoophagus insidians are septate, anastomoses are not formed, and TEM of the adhesive pags reveals that the outer wall is rough (Saikawa et al., 1988). A molecular study (Tanabe et al., 1999) that included Zoophagus insidians, Cephaliophora tropica, C. irregularis (Thaxter, 1903), C. longispora, and C. musicola (Barron et al., 1990) clearly revealed the phylogeny of these fungi. Zoophagus insidians is a zygomycete, C. irregularis and C. tropica, and C. longispora and C. musicola are anamorphic Pezizales but the latter two nematode trapping taxa are not closely related to the saprophytic C. irregularis and C. tropica. Cephaliophora musicola and C. longispora were transferred to Lecophagus (Tanabe et al., 1999), a genus described by Dick (1990).
Bibliography
Abro, H., H.A.M. Crowther, C.J. Lawson, and M.W. Dick. 1989. Polyols of the fungus, Zoophagus insidians. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 17:439-441.
Arnaudow, N. 1925. Untersuchung über den Tiere fangenden Pilz Zoophagus insidians Som. Flora 118:1-16.
Barron, G.L., C. Morikawa, and M. Saikawa. 1990. New Cephaliophora species capturing rotifers and tardigrades. Canadian Journal of Botany 68:685-690.
Coffell, R., M.E.S. Hudspeth, and R. Meganathan. 1990. Biochemical evidence for the exclusion of Zoophagus insidians from the Oomycetes. Mycologia 82:326-331.
Das-Gupta, S.N., and U. Shome. 1965. Acaulopage pectospora Drech., a new record from Indian soils. Mycopathologia Mycologia Applicata 30:145-148.
Dick, M.W. 1990. The systematic position of Zoophagus insidians. Mycological Research 94:347-354.
Drechsler, C. 1945. Several additional Phycomycetes subsisting on nematodes and amoebae. Mycologia 37:1-31.
Drechsler, C. 1962. A nematode-capturing phycomycete with distally adhesive branches and proximally imbedded fusiform conidia. American Journal of Botany 49:1089-1095.
Fuller, M.S., and A. Jaworski (eds.). 1987. Zoosporic fungi in teaching and research. Palfrey Contributions in Botany, No. 3. Southeastern Publishing Corporation, Athens, Georgia. 303 p.
Glockling, S.L. 1997. Zoophagus cornus: a new species from Japan. Mycological Research 101:1179-1182.
Karling, J.S. 1936. A new predaceous fungus. Mycologia 28:307-320.
Liu, X.-z., Z.-q Miao, R.-h. Gao, and K.-q. Zhang. 1998. Nematode capturing Zygomycetes: Zoophagus tylopagus sp. nov., and Z. pectosporus from China. Mycosystema 17:105-108.
Mirande, R. 1920. Zoophagus insidians Sommerstoff, capteur de rotifères vivants. Bull. Soc. Mycol. France 36:47-53.
Miura, K. 1967. On Acaulopage pectospora. Journal of Japanese Botany 42:202-206.
Morikawa, C., M. Saikawa, and G. Barron. 1993. Fungal predators of rotifers—a comparative study of Zoophagus, Lecophagus, and Cephaliophora. Mycol. Res. 97: 421-428.
Powell, M.J., T. Heyburn, and S. Toadvine. 1990. Zoophagus insidians has reproductive and cellular morphology of a zygomycete. Mycologia 82:460-470.
Prowse, G.A. 1954. Sommerstorffia spinosa and Zoophagus insidians predaceous on rotifers, and Rozellopsis inflata, the endoparasite of Zoophagus. Transactions of the British Mycological Society 37:134-150.
Saikawa, M., and C. Morikawa. 1985. Electron microscopy on a nematode trapping fungus, Acaulopage pectospora. Can. J. Bot. 63:1386-1390.
Saikawa, M, K. Yamaguchi, and C. Morikawa. 1988. Capture of rotifers by Acaulopage pectospora, and further evidence of its similarity to Zoophagus insidians. Mycologia 80:880-884.
Sommerstorff, H. 1911. Ein Tiere fangender Pilz ([Zoophagus insidians, nov. gen., nov. sp.). Österreichische Botanische Zeitschrift 61: 361-373.
Tanabe, Y., T. Nagahama, M. Saikawa, and J. Sugiyama. 1999. Phylogenetic relationship of Cephaliophora to nematophagus hyphomycetes iincluding taxonomic and nomenclatural emendations of the genus Lecophagus. Mycologia 91:830-835.
Whisler, H.C., and L.B. Travland. 1974. The rotifer trap of Zoophagus. Arch. Microbiol. 101:95-107.
Updated Nov 05, 2007
