Am 15.09.2011 19:14, schrieb Orchid XP v8:

> The Black Widow's venom is very toxic to insects. Which isn't
> surprising, considering that this is what spiders usually eat. The venom
> is completely non-toxic to, say, cats. Which makes sense, since spiders
> don't eat cats. (And cats don't usually eat spiders.)

You don't know the cats I owned :-)

> And yet, Black Widow venom /just happens/ to be lethal to humans. Not
> because there's any advantage to that, but just be coincidence.
>
> And that's what I'm asking. Is mammal predation on fungi significant
> enough that it's worth developing defences against it? Or is the extreme
> toxicity of some fungi merely an unrelated accident?

Is toxicity (mild or extreme) of fungi to mammals...

a) rare, found only in very few species, or
b) frequent, found in multiple - even very different - species?

Is it therefore...

a) probably a stray coincidence, or
b) probably an indication that it gives those fungi a systematic 
evolutionary edge?

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