Cordyceps cateniannulata
Cordyceps cateniannulata (Z.Q. Liang) Kepler, B. Shrestha & Spatafora, IMA Fungus 8(2): 346 (2017)
Index Fungorum number: IF 820976; Facesoffungi number: FoF 13958
Parasitic on insect cocoon. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Synnemata sessile, white, gregarious, powdery. Conidiophores differentiating from hyphae of synnemata, septate, smooth-walled, unbranched, bearing cluster of metulae or phialides. Metulae 3–5.5 (x̄ = 4.3, n = 20) μm in diam., subglobose, hyaline, aseptate, carrying a group of phialides. Phialides 3.5–7 × 2–3.5 (x̄ = 5 × 2.8, n = 25) μm, with globose basal portion, tapering abruptly into narrow neck, hyaline. Conidia 3.5–5 × 1.3–2.1 (x̄ = 4.1 × 1.7, n = 25) μm, hyaline, allantoid, unicellular, smooth-walled.
Culture characteristics – Colonies on PDA reaching 4.5 cm after 30 days at 25 °C, white, velvety, circular, margin entire, reverse pale white.
Material examined – China, Yunnan Province, Kunming City, Xishan District, Western hill park, on an insect cocoon laying on leaf litter, 27 July 2018, De-Ping Wei, XS2701 (HKAS 102451), living culture KUNCC21-10505.
Molecular data – LSU (OQ127381), SSU (OQ127311), ITS (OQ127347), TEF (OQ186373), RPB2 (OQ186401)
Notes – The isolate (HKAS 102451) was obtained from an infected insect cocoon on leaf litter in Yunnan Province, China. The host was covered with abundant white powdery conidia. In the phylogenetic tree, it clusters with Cordyceps cateniannulata (TBRC 7258) with maximum support (Fig. 1). Cordyceps cateniannulata was originally described as Paecilomyces cateniannulatus by Liang (1981) and it was moved to the former genus by Kepler et al. (2017) based on multigene phylogenetic analysis. This species has been reported to infect Pieris sp. Euproctis pseudoconspersa, Nilaparvata lugens (Lepidoptera), Cacoecia ingentana (Coleoptera) in Guizhou Province, China (Liang 1981). Our isolate bears similarity to C. cateniannulata in the nearly reduced synnemata, phialides with subglobose base and narrow neck, allantoid conidia as well as white, fluffy colonies.
Cordyceps cateniannulata (HKAS 102451). a Synnemata on insect cocoon. b Enlargement of synnemata. c Conidiophores. d–f Metulae bearing phialides and conidia. g–j Conidia. Scale bar: c = 50 μm, d–f = 5 μm, g–j = 3 μm (c–f stained with Congo red solution).
Reference:
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.