Hypocreales » Cordycipitaceae » Beauveria

Beauveria bassiana

Beauveria bassiana (Bals.-Criv.) Vuill., Bull. Soc. bot. Fr. 59: 40 (1912)

Index Fungorum number: IF 199430; Facesoffungi number: FoF 13952

Parasitic or saprobic on dead insects. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Colony entirely covering the host, white, woolly. Mycelium 1–2.3 (x̄ = 1.8, n = 40) μm, hyaline, septate, branched, smooth-walled to slightly verruculose. Conidiogenous cells 2.5–3.7 × 1.9–3 (x̄ = 3.3 × 2.4, n = 20) µm, occurring in tight clusters, base subglobose, apex with an indeterminate, geniculate, denticulate rachis. Conidia 2–2.6 (x̄ = 2.2, n = 30) µm in diam., forming from the denticulate rachis, globose, hyaline, aseptate.

Culture characteristics – Colonies on PDA reaching 4.5 cm after 15 days at 25 °C, white, powdery, irregularly-shaped, reverse creamy white.

Material examined – China, Yunnan Province, Honghe County, Amushan natural reserve, on a decay insect lying on leaf litter, 15 June 2018, De-Ping Wei, TSQ17 (HKAS 102446), living culture KUNCC 21-10504.

Molecular data – LSU (OQ127376), SSU (OQ127305), ITS (OQ127341), TEF (OQ186368), RPB1 (OQ186422), RPB2 (OQ186398).

Notes – Beauveria bassiana is a facultative parasite of a wide range of insects. This species is also saprobic on various decaying substrates or lives as an endophyte. The updated morphological illustration of B. bassiana was provided by Rehner et al. (2011) based on the neotype (ARSEF 1564). Our collection (HKAS 102446) was found on the remnants of an unidentified insect and its morphological features fit well with the description of B. bassiana.

 

 

Beauveria bassiana (HKAS 102446, a–i), a Colonies on hosts. b Close-up of colonies. c Conidial mass. d, e, Conidiophores and phialides. f–I Conidia. Scale bar: a = 2000 μm, c = 50 μm, d = 20 μm, e = 5 μm, f–i = 3 μm (d, e stained with Congo red solution).

 

Wei DP, Gentekaki E, Wanasinghe DN, Karunarathna SC, Tang SM, Hyde KD 2022 – Diversity, molecular dating and ancestral characters state reconstruction of entomopathogenic fungi in Hypocreales. Mycosphere 13: 281–351.

 

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