Colombian Cordyceps Species

Submitted by cordyceps on Sun, 03/10/2013 - 17:13

Searching the oak (Quercus humboldtii) dominated montane cloud forest in Chicaque near Bogota, Colombia, Tatiana Sanjuan (see below) and I found an array of Cordyceps-species.  We were very lucky since there had been only one good rain that announced the end of the the dry season.

A Cordyceps currently classified with Cordyceps caloceroides, a spider parasite. Its fruiting bodies have pushed open a spider's egg sac. This Cordyceps specimen is only about 5 mm tall.

An other Cordyceps caloceroides.

 

Another Cordyceps caloceroides group Cordyceps growing on an idiopidae spider

 below a close up of the still immature fruiting body.

 

 

A Cordyceps very close to Cordyceps variabilis

Note the sterile apex of the stroma that bears a fertile cushion in which perithecioid ascomata are immersed. The host insect should be a fly larva.

Here a link to a paper by Kathy Hodges, Richard Humber & Chris Wozniack (1998) on Cordyceps variabilis.

 

Isaria anamorphs

Isaria tenuipes (= Paecilomyces tenuipeswhen freshly found. 

 Digging out carefully Isaria tenuipes (=Paecilomyces tenuipesshow the parasitized insects that serve as host. We saw probaly nearly a dozen Isaria during our two day excursion. 

An unidentified Cordyceps anamorph.

 Tatians Sanjuan, a leading expert on neo-tropical Cordyceps, was so kind to take me out in the woods. I had promised to share some of my photography techniques and she delivered Cordyceps objects!
Very interesting was Tatiana's confidence in Cordyceps showing up in the same location year after year.  

 

 

 

Last edited on Tue, April 9, 2013, 10:10 am