Mushrooms arising from the mole latrine reveal the life of talpid moles: proposals of ‘myco-talpology’ and ‘habitat-cleaning symbiosis’

Myco-talpology is the science of mushrooms and talpid moles based on our discovery in 1976 that underground mole nests can be located by the aboveground fruiting of the agaricsHebeloma danicumorHebeloma sagarae, a Japanese sibling species of EuropeanHebeloma radicosum. Hyphae of these mushrooms specifically colonise mole latrines near nests, forming ectomycorrhizas with the roots of their host trees. By this process, the hyphae and roots absorb, transform, and translocate the nutrients from mole excretions, cleaning the mole’s habitat. The mushrooms fruit on the ground with thick root-like tissue stretching up from the ectomycorrhizas. The presence of the fruit bodies serves as the only indicator for underground mole nests, enabling us to provide novel insights into mole ecology. We excavated 74H. sagaraeorH. danicumsites in Japan and 13H. radicosumsites in Europe and identified the nesting species. These investigations provided new perspectives on latrine making, nest structure, breeding and nestlings, the neighbouring presence of different Talpini species, and long-term nesting at the same site with inhabitant changes. Moreover, they suggested that a tripartite habitat-cleaning symbiosis among moles, mushrooms, and mushroom-host trees in the latrine must have existed for a long time in Japanese and European forests. While moles are traditionally considered inhabitants of open areas, their special relationship with mushrooms and trees suggests they may originally be forest inhabitants.