Doddaballapur (Karnataka): Mushrooms grow on decaying material. However, a surprising incident has taken place where a mushroom has sprouted on a living frog.
This is the first time that this matter has come to light in the world of science. The credit for introducing this wonder to the world for the first time goes to entomologist YT Lohit and his team.
YT Lohit is an environmentalist, keen on the world of insects and birds. As an interest he is engaged in the study of insects and birds. He works as the Senior Project Officer of World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Thus, YT Lohit went to Mala village in Karkala taluk of the Kudremukh mountain range along with his friends Chinmay C Maliye, Naveen Iyer, BG Nisha, and S Asha to study frogs and snakes. This time, his team noticed a group of frogs.
Out of a group of about 50 frogs, only one frog was seen in particular. YT Lohit, when he captured the frog with his special camera, saw a mushroom sprouting on its leg.
Mushrooms sprouting on living things is a first for the scientific world. The mushroom which is sprouted on a golden-backed frog is known as Mysina or bonnet mushroom. A mushroom that does not belong to both the animal and plant classes belongs to the 'Fungi' class. The Golden Backed Frog is found only in the Western Ghats.
And this mushroom, which is called bonnet mushroom, grows only on rotten wood. A mushroom growing on a living animal is the first record in the world of science. The Western Ghats range is a testimony to that.
"Some fungi cause disease and death in amphibians. Similar problems can be seen in insects and spiders. However, the fungus on a living frog has led to more scientific research. The exact cause is not immediately predictable," said YT Lohit.
Scientists and environmentalists, who first noticed these photos suspected it to be an Artificial Intelligence (AI) image or photoshop. Later these doubts were cleared after being accepted by 'iNaturalist' and 'India Biodiversity Portal' and published in the international journal 'Reptiles and Amphibians'.
