Three species of earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris L., Aporrectodea long
a (Ude) and Allolobophora chlorotica (Savigny), were offered a choice
of mixtures of soil and small wheat straw fragments which had been ino
culated individually with six saprotrophic fungi. All earthworm specie
s showed preferences between the six fungal species offered. Early str
aw decomposers, capable of utilizing water-soluble sugars and cellulos
e, were preferred in most cases to the lignin-decomposing fungi charac
teristic of the later stages of decomposition. The removal of fungal-i
noculated straw pieces from the soil surface by L. terrestris followed
the same pattern. The palatability of two wheat pathogens to L. terre
stris was found to be similar to that of the preferred saprotroph. The
implications of these findings for fungal abundance and dispersal in
wheat fields are discussed.