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FIGURE 7 (LEFT): One of many severely damaged L. corallocephala fruiting bodies. The vacuolated structure of the stem has been exposed and can be clearly seen. A fleshfly is visible on the head of this fruiting body too.
FIGURE 8 (RIGHT): A decapitated fruiting body.
showed evidence of damage, more often to the stem than to the head (figs 4B, 6 & 7) and always at night
or early morning. Many were literally decapitated (fig. 8) with severed pieces of the head lying up to 100 mm from the stem. We initially thought this was caused by small rodents, but we now know that it is the handiwork of hairy caterpillars of an as yet unidentified moth, perhaps belonging to the family Erebidae (fig. 9). On two occasions, these caterpillars were found with their head and mouthparts deep inside a stinkhorn’s damaged stem.
Initially, the stinkhorns grew within
a small area of the garden, about 2 m2, which had recently been topdressed but which also lay directly underneath the nest of a pair of Hadedahs (Bostrychia hagedash) in a large Leopard Tree (Caesalpinia ferrea) and was spattered with their droppings! After several months, they disappeared from this area but appeared instead a few metres away underneath a Purple Broom (Polygala virgata).
Although L. corallocephalus was described scientifically from Angola, it has a worldwide distribution. South African records include localities in five provinces: Western and Eastern
Cape as well as KwaZulu-Natal and the Mpumalanga lowveld; none, it seems, from the highveld plateau or the arid western parts of the country. Despite their smell, stinkhorns are eaten as a delicacy in some countries!
FURTHER READING
Johnson, S.D. & Jürgens, A. (2010). Convergent evolution of carrion and faecal scent mimicry in fly-pollinated angiosperm flowers and a stinkhorn fungus. South African Journal of Botany, 76: 796-807.
Kuo, M. (2006). Lysurus corallocephalus. Retrieved from the mushroomexpert. com website:
http:// www.mushroomexpert.com/ lysurus_corallocephalus.html
Welwitsch, F. & Currey, F. (1868). Fungi angolensis – a description of the fungi collected by Dr Friedrich Welwitsch in Angola during the years 1850 – 1861. Transactions of the Linnean Society, London, 26: 279-294.
FIGURE 9: The caterpillar responsible for damage to L. corralocephala stems.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Dr David Barraclough (University of KwaZulu-Natal) kindly identified the flies as far as he could from the photographs as did Steve Woodhall for the caterpillar.
thola: VOLUME 17. 2014/15
Fig. 7
Fig. 8