Ecological characteristics of fungi in Auriscalpium andStrobilurus
The temporal and trophic niches as reported in the literature and our
own observations for Auriscalpium and Strobilurus fungi in
this study are summarized in Figure 1 and Table S6. The data showed
clear differences between these two groups of fungi in their temporal
distributions during pinoecone decomposition (Figure 1; Table S6).
Specifically, fruiting bodies of A . vulgare are mostly
found on newly fallen cones of P . sylvestris , P .pinaster , P . halepensis and P . mugoin September and October, while those of S . stephanocystismostly appear on highly rotten cones already decomposed by A .vulgare in May. Similarly, A . orientale mainly
appears on newly fallen cones of P . yunnanensis , P .tabuliformis , P . densiflora , P .densata , P . massoniana and P .hwangshanensis in August, while S . luchuensis on
highly rotten cones already decomposed by A . orientale . In
addition, A . microsporum mostly produces fruitbodies in
September on newly fallen cones of P . armandii and with
fruiting bodies of S . pachycystidiatus found in June on
cones newly decomposed by A . microsporum , and S .orientalis in October on highly decomposed cones by A .microsporum and/or S . pachycystidiatus . The
ecological characteristics of colonization and fruiting byAuriscalpium and Strobilurus fungi on pinecones as
observed in the field were similarly found in our greenhouse fruiting
experiment. Under the greenhouse culture condition, fruiting bodies ofA . microsporum formed first from July to September, thenS . pachcystidiatus appeared from May to July over the next
three years, and finally S . orientalis appeared from
October to December. Togather, these greenhouse observations are
consistent with our field observations on the ecological successions of
these fungi on pinecones (Figure S2).