warren@pluto.UUCP (Warren Burstein) (10/31/85)
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_