Fungal spore transport by omnivorous mycophagous slug in temperate forest.

Slugs are important consumers of fungal fruiting bodies and expected to carry their spores. In this study, we examined whether slugs () can act as effective dispersers of spores of basidiomycetes. The microscopic observation confirmed the presence of basidiospores in feces of field-collected slugs, and the DNA metabarcoding study revealed that Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were major fungal taxa found in the feces.