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Abstract
Among the many parasitic or commensalistic symbionts of Passalidae (Coleoptera) are fungi that live within their hindgut and on the exoskeleton of the beetles and their parasitic mites. Three Eccrinales (Trichomycetes) include Leidyomyces attenuatus (= Enterobryus attenuatus), Passalomyces compressus (= Enterobryus compressus), and an unnamed species originally described by Heymons and Heymons in 1934. Leidyomyces attenuatus has been found in populations throughout the range of Passalidae in the Americas, whereas P. compressus and the Heymons' eccrinid are reported only from Neotropical passalid beetles. A new genus and species of branched fungus, Enteroramus dimorphus, lives in the hindgut of the common eastern North American passalid, Odontotaenius disjunctus. In axenic culture the fungus converts to a yeastlike growth form. Externally, both the beetles and their mites carry parasitic thalli of many species of Rickia (Ascomycota: Laboulbeniales). The probability that many fungi from Passalidae remain unreported worldwide is discussed.