This issue of Mycologcal Research News features: Locust and grasshopper control with fungi.

Fifteen papers are included in this part. Nutrient use of mycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungi is compared; Spathulospora is shown by molecular methods to belong to the Sordariomycetes; and novel anamorphs belonging to two Tuber species have been discovered in soil.

Molecular phylogenetic studies around the species level consider: the Ophiostoma minus group; variation in Entoleuca mammata; the placement of Rhynchosporium alismatis in Plectosporium; the identity of Hygrophorus cossus based on sequences from 200 yr old specimens; the differentiation of two special forms in Fusarium oxysporum; and a new crop-associated species of Pythium in North America.

Volatile organic compounds produced by two wood-rotting fungi are characterised and detection methods compared; and a procedure for the more rapid production of gametangia and so the typing of races of Phytophthora ramorum is reported.

The infection processes in the plant pathogenic Helminthosporium solani and the potential biocontrol agent Plectosporium alismatis are documented in detail, and a new rust on Kalanchoe cultivars has been discovered.

The following new scientific names are introduced: Aecidium kalanchoe, and Pythium attrantheridium sp. nov.; and Plectosporium alismatis (syn. Septoria alismatis) comb. nov.