Hypocreales » Cordycipitaceae » Cordyceps

Cordyceps cateniobliqua

Cordyceps cateniobliqua (Z.Q. Liang) Kepler, B. Shrestha & Spatafora, IMA Fungus 8(2): 346 (2017)

Index Fungorum number: IF 820977; Facesoffungi number: FoF 13957

Parasitic on insect larvae. Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Synnemata multiple, cylindrical, branched, erected, pink at base, paler toward the apex. Conidiophores developing from the upper part of synnemata, septate, smooth-walled, unbranched, bearing cluster of metulae or phialides. Metulae 4.5–8.5 × 1.5–2.7 (x̄ = 6.4 × 2.2, n = 20) μm, cylindrical to clavate, hyaline, aseptate, carrying a group of phialides. Phialides 3.5–7 × 1.7–3.4 (x̄ = 5 × 2.3, n = 30) μm, flask-shaped, hyaline. Conidia 2.5–4 × 1–2 (x̄ = 3.2 × 1.5, n = 35) μm, hyaline, ellipsoidal to hammerhead, unicellular, smooth-walled, irregularly arranged in chain.

Culture characteristics – Colonies on PDA reaching 2.5 cm after 15 at 25 °C, pink, velvety, circular, margin entire, reverse orange-yellow.

Material examined – China, Yunnan Province, Kunming City, Panlong District, Kunming botanical garden, on an insect larva packed in decay leaf, 9 July 2021, Lei Lei, Lei01 (HKAS 102458), living culture KUNCC21-10510.

Molecular data – LSU (OQ127381), SSU (OQ127311), ITS (OQ127347), TEF (OQ186373), RPB2 (OQ186401)

Notes – Paecilomyces cateniobliquus was introduced by Liang (1981) from Adoxophyes privatana (Lepidoptera) in Guizhou Province, China. Kepler et al. (2017) transferred this species to Cordyceps based on multigene phylogenetic analysis. Liang (1981) defined this species as having white to rosey erected branched synnemata, cylindrical metulae, phialides with swollen base, ellipsoidal to ovoid conidia arranged in chains and pink colonies. The morphology of our isolates is largely consistent with those described by Liang (1981), except for the conidial shape. Our isolate produces dominantly hammerhead conidia, while these are scarcely observed in the original illustration. The multigene phylogenetic analysis confirms that our isolate is conspecific with Cordyceps cateniobliqua.

 

 

Cordyceps cateniobliqua (HKAS 102458). a, b Synnemata growing from host. c Synnema bearing conidiophores. d, e Conidiophores. f Phialides bearing conidia. g–i Conidia. Scale bar: c = 500 μm, d = 30 μm, e = 10 μm, f, g = 5 μm, h, i = 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.

 

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