Entomogenous, entomopathogenic, insect-pathogenic, invertebrate-pathogenic – the list goes on. Yes they infect insects as the first three terms allude to. The fourth term opens the list to all invertebrates – including sea-slugs. After all, there is a good group that are very specific to spiders – and these are definitely not insects – neither are sea-slugs! And then there is a group that infect other fungi! What do these all have in common?
Chitin
Maybe we should consider such fungi as being chitinophilic. While leaving the door open a nudge for the few chitinophiles that have also adopted chitin's next door neighbour (keratin) as a substrate.
Just a thought.
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