My husband found a piece of a wasp's nest attached to our fence (bare wood, not a "painted" fence). When I observed the wasp's nest with my microscope, I initially found a very light "orange" dusting to some of the nest; when I increased magnification I discovered the fungus (or what I think is a fungus!). I have not been able to identify it, if any other researchers can help me, I would very much appreciate it.
Please have a look at this useful RG link.
Article Mucor nidicola sp. nov., a fungal species isolated from an i...
Please have a look at this useful RG link.
Article Mucor nidicola sp. nov., a fungal species isolated from an i...
Dear, Julia Schenzinger ,,
It may be Mucor nidicola, because this fungus can be isolated from wasp nest. It belongs to Zygomycetes fungi and forms yellowish-orange sporangia and erect sporangiophores. But I ask you, what is the magnification power of the attached pictures.
With regards
We need some other pictures of the fungus on slides with mention to magnification power. Also you must provide a picture of fungus mycelium to see if its coenocytic (non-septate).
Arvind Singh , thank you very much for pointing me towards this article. I have to re-read it to get a better understanding of the writing. But now, I do suspect that this was a paper wasp, and that it is possible that the fungus I saw was related to the Mucor nidicola sp. I wish I could prove it myself, but I have very simple equipment in my tiny lab! I'm going to try to take another look at this piece of nest again tomorrow.
shalom & nameste! - Julia.
Yehya A. Salih , I went into the lab and found that the sample of wasp's nest was being kept in a covered petri dish! It wasn't thrown away.
I will try to look at it tomorrow with the microscope and see if I can find anything growing on what is left of the nest; and hope to get a better idea of the magnifications of this microscope (my apologies, but I did not record the magnifications the first time I took the fotos of the nest/fungus).
shalom! - Julia.
OK dear, Julia.. I hope you have more observation and prove that the fungus is Mucor nidicola.
Good luck
Yehya A. Salih , Arvind Singh , Ammar A. Oglat ,
I was able to find the fungus again :)
Here are the pictures I took. I could only get images with the lowest magnification on my microscope (80x).
I noticed a few not elliptical sporangiospores (the most obvious is a kidney-shaped one, in the last photo I uploaded). I read about this in the article that Arvind Singh pointed me towards:
"M. hiemalis f. corticola produces cylindrical–ellipsoidal sporangiospores, which are narrow ellipsoidal to nearly fusiform in M. luteus, and cylindrical in M. hiemalis f. silvaticus, whereas they are mostly ellipsoidal, kidney-shaped, and irregular in M. nidicola" (1)
shalom! - Juju.
(1)Article Mucor nidicola sp. nov., a fungal species isolated from an i...
Hi, dear Julia,,,
From the attached pictures and fungus features and your description, I think its Mucor nidicola which has yellowish-orange sporangia and its sporangiospores are mostly ellipsoidal, but also kidney-shaped or irregular.
With highly appreciation.
Dr. Yehya A. Salih
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