{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03527902501603592, 'fraction_numerical': 0.01603592046183451, 'mean_word_length': 5.304582210242588, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Zygomycetes From Herbivore Dung in the Ecological Reserve of Dois IrmÃOs, Northeast Brazil

Thirty-eight taxa of Zygomycetes distributed in 15 genera were recorded from tapir (Tapirus terrestris), camel (Camelus bactrianus), horse (Equus caballus), deer (Cervus elaphus), agouti (Dasyprocta aguti), donkey (Equus asinus), llama (Llama glama) and waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) dung collected at the Reserva Ecológica de Dois Irmãos located in Recife, State of Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil. The samples were collected on a monthly basis from June 2005 to May 2006, taken to the laboratory and incubated in moist chambers. Higher number of taxa was observed in the excrements of tapir, followed by deer and donkey. The highest number of species was detected for Mucor, followed by Pilobolus. Statistical analyses showed significant differences in richness of Zygomycetes taxa between the herbivore dung types. Differences of species composition, however, were weak. Seasonality influenced the Zygomycetes species composition but not its richness. Variations in taxa composition between ruminants and non-ruminants dung were non significant.


INTRODUCTION
Coprophilous fungi are important components of ecosystems, actively participating in the cycling of nutrients in animal excrements (28). These organisms often grow and reproduce under a narrow range of conditions, occurring at different temperatures, pH and moisture levels, and are important biological control agents, source of enzymes and antibiotics. Their fruiting bodies often occur in succession.
Zygomycetes are often the first group to appear, followed by Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes (11). Among the Zygomycetes commonly found in dung, some are obligate coprophilous, requiring culture media added of dung extract or hemin for their growth, while some are facultative coprophilous, developing in common culture media (18).
A number of studies on the diversity and succession of coprophilous fungi have been carried out using different animal dung as substrate (10,13,20,23,25,26,27,28). However, there are few records exclusively regarding the coprophilous Zygomycetes. According to Krug et al. (18), the majority of the published records of this group from dung comes from Europe and North America, rarely from Africa and South  (34,35,36,37,38). In the State of Pernambuco, there are only a few reports registering the isolation of Mucorales from herbivore dung (1).
Considering the few studies of coprophilous Zygomycetes in Brazil, especially in Northeastern Region, the aims of this study were to report the occurrence of Zygomycetes on dung from herbivores kept in captivity in Recife city zoo, and to compare species composition and number of occurrence in this substrate.  (17) and Mehrotra and Prasad (21).

Differences in the associations of Zygomycetes species
occurring between different herbivores dung and between the different months of the year were analyzed using similarity analysis (ANOSIM Primer 5.2.4), according to Clarke and Warwick (9). Differences on Zygomycetes species richness in herbivores dung and between months were tested by Friedman analysis, species richness differences between ruminants and non-ruminants were tested using the Mann-Whitney test (39).

RESULTS
Ninety six dung samples were collected during the study.
The ANOSIM analysis showed significant differences 3% Mucor circinelloides f. circinelloides + + -+ + + + -   (16). Considering that Mucor is also commonly found in soil (12), it is possible that species of Mucor isolated in this study are soil contaminants. Alves et al.  Nyberg and Persson (23) and Richardson (25) mentioned that a few species show higher frequency of occurrence while most of them occur less often, as was also found in this study.
Our results pointed out that Thamnostylum piriforme was the commonest species (100% frequency). According to Benny and Benjamin (5)  predators can influence the mycota of feces (7,11,13). As the dung samples were kept in moist chambers, under laboratory conditions (temperature, light intensity and away from insect predators), some of these variables can be disregarded, and the feeding of the animals probably determines the mycota composition in this study.
Some taxa were specific to ruminant or non-ruminant feces. The digestive processes of ruminants and non-ruminants are important selective factors for the composition of species in excrement, as the digestive enzymes work longer on the fungal spores in ruminants (11). However, ANOSIM indicates that differences in the composition of Zygomycetes were not significant between these two groups. further studies are needed to uncover these facts.