#cordycipitaceae

[onenicebugperday]

Entomopathogenic fungus (Engyodontium aranearum) infected spiders

Engyodontium aranearum is a species of ascomycete fungus in the family Cordycipitaceae. It parasitizes the long bodied cellar spider, Pholcus phalangioides. It causes 100% mortality in infected spiders.

Photo 1 by bugzone, 2 by garrett_brown, 3 by laurahuckleberry, 4 by lois_rancilhac, 5 by emilvus, 6 by komille277, and 7 (for scale) by samdeakin

[wild-e-eep]

I found this fluffy monstrosity on the underside of a foxglove leaf last week. It is a spider-killing fungus Gibellula arachnophila (I think) You can just see the front four feet of the victim protruding from under the fungus, to the right. Not sure about the brown squiggly stuff on the left - looks a bit like snail faeces.

[rattyexplores]

Spiders ravaged by Parasitic Fungi

Though I’m not sure if all these fungi are the same species, fungi in the Gibellula genus seem to attack arachnids in particular.

Unidentified, genus Gibellula

02/11/22 - 14/10/22 - 19/10/22

[millii-3]

I’m loving the last of us. Really thought they wouldn’t do justice to the game. But the cast are just perfect

[divinationdrawings]

Lady of the Cordyceps

[ribosome-papers]

Phylogeny and species delimitations in the economically, medically, and ecologically important genus Samsoniella (Cordycipitaceae, Hypocreales)

Pubmed: http://dlvr.it/SxPK8H

[mycelium-wizard]

Any of the Cordycipitaceae family? Especially if you have a magical offshoot.

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[partsonapizza]

Some more drawings of my pets, i

[drhoz]

#1511 - Beauveria sp.

Photo by Wayne Boatwright, of a longicon beetle killed by a fungus.

The genus was named after Jean Beauvarie, a french mycologist. B. bassiana, the best-known species, is named after Agostino Bassi, who was studying muscardine disease in silkworms in the 19th century, proved it was caused by a fungus, and incidentally the first demonstration of the germ theory of disease.

Beauvaria is asexually reproducing - there is a sexually-reproducing stage, but those are called Cordyceps where known. Fungal taxonomy can be weird like that, largely because it can be so difficult to connect the asexual form to the sexual form. Until molecular biology became widespread, most fungi had different names for the two forms. As of 2013, the rule is now ‘one fungus, one name’, so there are a lot of revisions in the pipeline. 

An infected insect or arachnid becomes increasingly sluggish and ill as the fungus thickens and crystallises its haemolymph, and secretes toxins. Once the host is killed, the fungus erupts from the thinner parts of the cuticle, dehydrating and sometimes mummifying the corpse, and forming a white layer of fungal conidia hardened with oxalate crystals. 

[onenicebugperday]

@oreo-pudding​ submitted: I wanted to send this one in separately because it’s so wild, and unfortunately contains a most likely deceased bug:(

Located in Florida

I think I found a moth that got…. fungus-ed….

That is a very deceased moth, yes. RIP, lil buddy. Hope you lived a nice long moth life before you got fungused! The fungus, I would think, is Cordycipitaceae, possibly the Akanthomyces tuberculatus complex.

[cedar-glade]

Josh, @ascomycotas, and I stumbled upon the fungal tomb of a moth on Large Woodland Carex in Versailles Indiana State Park.

We still do not know the exact species of fungus it is but came to the conclusion that it was definitely a member of the Cordyceps genera due to the clear club tube bodies that are evident of Ascomycetes instead of Zygomycetes.   Cordyceps tuberculata is our best bet for the range, characteristic look, and habit that was presented. 

The reason why we have doubt is based on specific keying of host and and fungi can be very difficult. This species appeared to have similar shape to that in  Hepialidae but could not be keyed due to the cake like mummification and eruption of ascocarps on a fully metamorphosed host. Another option for host of this specific fungus would of been members of Sphingidae but this moth was clearly not in that family due to small size and wings being more truncate at the end instead of the sphinx moth’s pointed wings when resting. 

The fungus itself did not have the traditional shape the books spoke of but did point to  Cordyceps tuberculata f. cristata with it’s crestate, or crested, bodies with what we presumed as being the closed apex presenting ascostroma endings. 

Still, whatever this was, it made us excited.

Further reading:

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jmy/2016/7648219/

http://mycoportal.org/portal/taxa/index.php?taxon=152005

https://www.mycodb.fr/fiche.php?genre=Cordyceps&espece=tuberculata

[rattyexplores]

Parasitic Fungi on Queens

Found these two on opposite sides of the tree. I guess these queens just got unlucky.

Parasite - Unidentified, family Cordycipitaceae

Host - Oecophylla smaragdina

22/02/23

[karnilla74]

Skipper with Entomopathogenic fungus, Cordyceps tuberculata? por Andreas Kay Por Flickr: from Ecuador: www.flickr.com/andreaskay/albums

[fnfpicks]

Today's #FnFPicks #CreatureOfTheDay is #Cordyceps #DidYouKnow Himalayan yak herders first discovered their animals became remarkably energetic after grazing on an unidentified brown grass-like mushroom, growing from the head of a caterpillar. ORGANISM CLASSIFICATION: Kingdom: Fungi Division: Ascomycota Class: Sordariomycetes Order: Hypocreales Family: Cordycipitaceae Genus: Cordyceps Please consider sharing the video with someone who'd love these #FunFacts If you want to Suggest Animals for our videos (which is recommended), or have any complaints, please feel free to hit us anywhere over the #FnFPicks Community: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FnFPicks Twitter: https://twitter.com/FnFPicks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FnFPicks And don't forget to Subscribe...:-) #StayHome #WithMe #PickOfTheDay #Fungi #Cordyceps

[onenicebugperday]

@the-apocalypse-is-cancelled submitted: Hey there! I found this dead caterpillar with fungus growing out of its head in [removed] (please remove location) my partner is pretty sure it's a type of cordiceps but I haven't found anything online that resembles it.. would you happen to know? Totally fine if not just enjoy the cool fungus xjznzn

Here are some other cool bugs I'm happy to find, no need to ID!

A flat backed millipede!! I'm super chaffed to find this guy! The highlight of my day. And below is a giant worm I save from getting squished on the road. I took a picture and then promptly put him safely out of the way of any bicycles and cars.

I hope you like him!

Hello! It does indeed look like the start of an entomopathogenic fungus growing out of the caterpillar, but I don't recognize it either. Cordyceps is just one genus of entomopathogenic fungus - could be from another genus in the families Cordycipitaceae (under which Cordyceps falls) or Ophiocordycipitaceae. Or another one I'm unaware of! Who knows, I'm not a fungus expert. Still a cool find.

Love the millipede, though, and MY WORD THAT'S A BIG WORM. Glad they were safely relocated to a worm-friendly zone :)