Ecology of nematophagous fungi: Comparison of the soil sprinkling method with the Baermann funnel technique in the isolation of endoparasites

Abstract

A comparative investigation has shown the Baermann funnel technique to be significantly more effective in isolating endoparasitic nematophagous fungi than the soil sprinkling method. However, the Baermann funnel technique was not able to isolate all the endoparasites present in a soil sample, and in 34.4% of the infected sites examined, extra data on species distribution was obtained using the soil sprinkling method. The results indicate that the Baermann funnel technique is influenced by the indigenous nematode population density.