Serpula lacrymans Serpula lacrymans Serpula lacrymans is one of the fungi that cause damage to timber referred to as dry rot. It is a basidiomycete in the order Boletales. The species was first described under the name "Boletus lacrymans" by Franz Xavier von Wulfen in 1781. It was transferred to the genus "Serpula" by Petter Karsten in 1884. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin words "serpula" for "creeping" (as in a serpent) and "lacrymans", meaning "making tears". "Serpula lacrymans" has a preference for temperatures of but can survive any temperature from . It is not clear how much light is
Serpula tidal fashion. In the central circulatory system, the blood moves anteriorly from the tip of the abdomen to the front of the thorax through a sinus enveloping the alimentary canal, and posteriorly through a ventral blood vessel. The ventral vessel and the sinus communicate with each other by segmentally arranged ring vessels, and by a dorsal vessel, a transverse vessel, and a pair of circumesophageal vessels situated at the anterior end of the thorax. The dorsal vessel in some of the larger serpulids, like "Serpula", possesses a valve and a muscular sphincter, probably to prevent backflow of blood from the