Dry but chilly.
On November 4th I showed a large Clitocybe nebularis. This is a shot of the gills:
As I was looking at photographs of the gills I spotted (only just!) a minute (probably around 2 mm long) ichneumonid peeking out between a couple of the gills:
Obviously, the image is beyond the limits of the camera, but it's interesting to think what's happening here. Flies - Mycetophilids - lay their eggs on the fungi and the larvae hatch out and consume the fungus. This is evident, and it can be seen that many fungi contain 'maggots'. However, fungal fruit-bodies are short-lived and the flies must complete their development to pupa in only a couple of days. So here we have an ichneumonid that must locate and parasitise its host inside a fungus in a very short timescale. This is at least a four-deep food chain:
1) The plant (often a tree) that supports the fungus.
2) The fungus
3) The Mycetophilid that eats the fungus
4) The Ichneumonid.
Compare this with the food chain: Beech - Woolly Beech Aphid - Melangyna cincta (a hoverfly) - Entomophthora (a fungus parasitic on flies). I'm pretty sure that fungi will feature somewhere in most food chains. I have photographed this entire food chain and will show it on a suitable rainy day.