ABSTRACT
Relationships between insects and fungi Numerous fungi, either parasitic or saprophytic, infect insects, not to men tion the harmless external Laboulbeniales and internal Eccrinales also asso ciated with them (see Figure 4.1). I consider the fungi as plants in this book, used in the vernacular, even if they are today often treated as a separate kingdom of living organisms. True, the fungi are devoid of chlorophyll, making them distinct from the green plants, and some, such as the Myxomycetes, are amoeboid and move slowly on old logs and across soil. I know that studies made during the past 35 to 40 years show, according to their ribosomal RNA, that fungi are closer genetically to animals than to plants. As a result of these and other researches, living things are now classified into five kingdoms, with fungi being one of them. The five kingdoms are Plantae, Fungi, Animalia, Protista, and Monera (the bacteria and cyanobacteria). Other more recent classifications are pushing the fungi even closer to being considered animals. Daily changes in the higher classification of organisms lead me to keep the old eighteenth-century classification. I am not the only one to keep the fungi within the division of plants, albeit as aberrant plants, if you wish. Kew kept them in this territory along with cyanobacteria and lichens (which, of course, are not a group by themselves, being composed of two distinct organisms). It is interesting to note that a designation in Latin is still required by the International Codes for fungi, as it is for the green plants.
