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Abstract: By a doubtful extension of the interest of the entomologist to include nematodes as well as insects, mushroom entomology can be said to have begun in 1906 when Newstead reported the destruction of a crop by Ditylenchus eelworms. It is not my intention to pursue this wide definition but to consider only insects from hereon. The next, often neglected, contribution was made by the American, Popenoe (1912) who recorded Sciara multiseta as occurring in such vast numbers as to darken the windows of cropping houses. Later, Symes and Chorley (1921) reported that the larvae of Sciara praecox destroyed young pinheads. Strange to relate, this type of damage was not considered important until recently for, in the intervening years, attention was focussed on damage caused to sporophores by larvae tunnelling within the caps and stipes. Popenoe (1912), as well as Symes and Chorley, also reported that Tyroglyphus lintneri, a mite originally described by Osborn (1893) in the U.S.A., fed on mycelium and so caused complete failure of the beds — this we would now refute for this group of mites are regarded as bacterial feeders and so not responsible for mycelial damage (Hussey, 1964). They also mentioned that Pediculoides mites, now known as Red Pepper or Pygmephorus mites, caused slight deformities to sporophores. Again, we now understand that these mites feed only on the weed moulds Trichoderma, Monilia and Humicola (Hussey and Gurney, 1967) and are in no way responsible for damage to mushrooms other than by discoloration due to their presence in vast numbers. Work at Pennsylvania State University by Wicht (1970) has clarified differences between several species of these mites.
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