Document Type

Research

Abstract

The genus Lophotrichus was based by Benjamin (Mycologia 41 :346-354. 1949) on two species, one from Illinois, L. ampullus, selected as the type species, and one from Peru, L. martinii. Both were isolated from dung. The general habit of these fungi, the character of the perithecia, and the lemon-shaped spores produced in evanescent asci clearly suggest their close relationship with Chaetomium. Benjamin placed them in a distinct genus of the Chaetorniaceae, because of their long necks and their submerged habit of growth, both on dung and on agar media. The original isolation of L. martinii was from dung collected at Talara, Peru, in September, 1945. At the same time and place some dead grass was collected and kept in a sterile packet. This second collection, when wet over three years later, also produced L. martinii. In this case, however, the perithecia were superficial on the substratum exactly as are those of Chaetomium. (Fig. E) Another isolation of L. ampullus from litter collected near Douglas Lake, Michigan, showed exactly the same superficial habit of growth. This fact and the isolation of both species from plant debris suggest that the species of Lophotrichus are not primarily coprophilous but are basically cellulolytic, and that their appearance on dung is, like that of Chaetomium, more or less incidental. It was for this reason that the following tests were run to determine the cellulolytic powers of Lophotrichus and also its habit of growth.

Publication Date

1950

Journal Title

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

Issue

First Page

143

Last Page

148

Copyright

Language

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Bulat, Thomas J. (1950) "Lophotrichus as a Cellulolytic Genus," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 57(1), 143-148.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol57/iss1/13

Download

Comments?

COinS

Lophotrichus as a Cellulolytic Genus

Authors