The role of marine fungi in the penetration of calcareous substances

All publications dealing with fungi described from marine calcareous substrates are discussed in this survey of the literature. Original investigations of fungi from lime tubesof teredinids are included. Wood-inhabiting marine fungi, especially in warm waters, grow within calcareous linings of teredinid burrows. Fruiting structures of the Ascomycetes, Halosphaeria quadricornuta and Remispora salina, and the Deuteromycete, Periconia prolifica, form cavities in the tube linings, making them brittle and soft. Representatives of Cirrenalia and Humicola sporulate on the surface of calcareous linings. The fungus, Pharcidia balani, sometimes referred to as a lichen, decomposesshells of barnacles and molluscs. Another Ascomycete, Lulworlhia kniepii, parasitizes calcareous algae, probably living on the middle lamellae, not on the calcified cell walls.