Mycovores and entomo-associates of commercially cultivated Pleurotus florida

Mycovory is feeding on mycelia, fruiting bodies, or even spores of fungi particularly mushrooms. This paper reported the mycovorous insects and entomo-associates in the different developmental stages of fruiting bodies of commercially cultivated mushroom Pleurotus florida. A total of 675 specimens were collected and they were classified under 7 Orders and 15 Families. Majority of the collected insects were under Collembola (542), in which 412 of these insects belong to Poduroidea and the remaining 130 belongs to Entomobryidae. This was followed by Coleoptera (61) dominated by Staphylinidae (60), and Diptera (42) dominated by Ceratopogonidae (25) and Sciaridae (12). Collembola was found in all development stages (except Stage 2 – primordial initiation), but the highest number of this group was noted in Stage 3 – pinhead formation. However, most of the insect orders were collected in complete mycelial ramification (Stage 1), pinhead formation (Stage 3), and maturation (Stage 5) stages of the mushroom.