GROWTH OF THE COLLEMBOLAN FOLSOMIA-CANDIDA ON CULTURES OF THE MYCOPARASITE CONIOTHYRIUM MINITANS AND SCLEROTIA OF SCLEROTINIA-SCLEROTIORUM

The collembolan Folsomia candida grew on agar plate cultures of the sclerotial mycoparasite Coniothyrium minitans but died on agar plate cultures of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Nevertheless, when F. candida was transferred from C. minitans agar plate cultures to S. sclerotiorum cultures, C. minitans grew from the resulting cadavers of F. candida. Growth of F. candida on sclerotia of S. sclerotiorum inoculated with C. minitans, or another mycoparasite Phoma nebulosa, was significantly better than that on uninoculated sclerotia, but the resulting collembolans were significantly smaller than those maintained on C. minitans agar plates alone, indicating that parasitized sclerotia were poor food sources compared with pure cultures of C. minitans. The enhanced growth of F. candida observed on sclerotia inoculated with C. minitans compared with uninoculated sclerotia was reproduced when collembola were transferred from C. minitans-inoculated sclerotia to uninoculated sclerotia. Stipe production from the latter sclerotia was also reduced. A possible role for collembola in transferring C. minitans between sclerotia is suggested.