Capture of mites and rotifers by four strains of Dactylella gephyropaga known as a nematophagous hyphomycete

Abstract

Four strains of Dactylella gephyropaga obtained from Japan and Indonesia captured mites, as well as nematodes, by means of the adhesive hyphal network composed of columnar processes and rectangular meshes of hyphae, in which each of the meshes was made by additional growth of apex of a columnar process toward that of neighboring process and anastomosis with each other. This is the first report showing that a fungus captured and consumed mites. When immersed under water, the four strains captured rotifers also with the columnar processes by adhesion. The CBS178.37 used for comparison was not the strain of D. gephyropaga, and its adhesive network was produced only by repeating development and anastomosis of curved hyphae that captured neither mites and rotifers but only nematodes.