Template:Did you know nominations/Nematophagous fungus

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Yoninah (talk) 03:20, 2 November 2017 (UTC)

Nematophagous fungus

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Shaggy ink caps feed on nematodes

• ... that the underground parts of some carnivorous fungi (example pictured) catch and consume nematodes?
  • ALT1:... that some carnivorous fungi (example pictured) catch and consume soil nematodes?

• Reviewed: Further research is needed

Created/expanded by Cwmhiraeth (talk). Self-nominated at 18:33, 4 October 2017 (UTC).

• It looks as if your source is here. There are probably some nicer pictures here: commons:category:Coprinus comatus. I prefer ALT2, because ALT1 makes me imagine shaggycaps lassoing nematodes from the air as they fly by. HLHJ (talk) 04:03, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. I have struck the original hook. About the image, I chose it from all the ones available on Commons because it shows two fruiting bodies in prime condition and two others disintegrating into ink. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 08:02, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

By that criterion it's a good image, and probably very useful to readers who've never seen shaggycaps. I withdraw my objection.

I can't see any problems. I'd really like to know if the fungi mostly eat fungus-eating nematodes, or the common ones that eat bacteria, or if they preferentially eat the nematodes that eat living crop roots, or the nematode-eating nematodes, etc.. But in the past I've found that there is little information about nematodes that don't harm either humans or their crops. This is certainly the case in the nematode article. This imbalance seems to be in the human knowledge, though, not just your article, which is a vast improvement over the stub that it was at the end of last month, so it's unfair for me to whinge at you about it. Well done; it's a good article and an interesting DYK. If somewhat gruesome in parts. Thank you. HLHJ (talk) 00:55, 6 October 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. My guess is that most research is concentrated on economically important nematodes, and that the fungi don't care what species of nematode they eat. Clever fungi! Cwmhiraeth (talk) 06:40, 6 October 2017 (UTC)

References