fungal parasites of insects
Fungi appear in the news with surprising frequency. However, many of those stories do not provide any new information. Below is a summary of news stories that have taught me something about fungi from mid-May through Early September 2018. Read each summary to learn about: zombie ants, mushroom poisonings, White Nose Syndrome, Bananas, and more.
It’s hard being an insect. Despite being numerous, insects have many predators, have to deal with human pesticides and cars, and are susceptible to dreadful fungal pathogens. Some of these entomopathogenic fungi take control of their hosts’ bodies in innovative but disturbing ways. One such fungus is Massospora cicadina, which infects periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp., which appear in eastern North America every 13 or 17 years). After spending over a decade in the soil waiting for its hosts to emerge, the fungus infects the cicadas and causes their abdomens to pop off. The cicadas then fly around and try to mate with each other, spreading the fungal infection both through the air and through contact. It’s hard to imagine a more horrific sexually transmitted infection, even in the insect world.
Fungi appear in the news with surprising frequency. However, many of those stories do not provide any new information. Below is a summary of what we’ve learned about fungi from November 2017 through Early February 2018. Read below to learn about: zombie ants, aflatoxin control, white nose syndrome solutions, using fungi in concrete, and more! Visit the associated links to get the full story.
This fungus parasitizes caterpillars in the Himalayas and produces small, spike-like mushrooms. These mushrooms are highly prized for their supposed medicinal properties and have brought a lot of new wealth and new problems to the people living in the Himalayas. Ophiocordyceps sinensis fruiting bodies are known as “Yartsa Gunbu” in Tibetan and “Dōng Chóng Xià Cǎo” in Chinese, both of which translate to “winter worm, summer grass.” The English names for the fungus are much less colorful: “Caterpillar Fungus” or (more recently) “Himalayan Viagra.” sinensis (Fungi, Ascomycota, Sordariomycetes, Hypocreales, Ophiocordycipitaceae) is native to the meadows of the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau and can be found from 3,000m to 5,000m above sea level. The parasitic fungus infects a variety of species of ghost moth larvae that live underground. It initially infects the caterpillars in the late summer. By winter, the fungus is ready to kill its host. At that time, it...
Cordyceps militaris is a fascinating fungus that infects caterpillar and moth larvae. What’s the creepiest thing about this fungus? It mummifies its insect victims. I’ve been told that it also makes its subterranean victims crawl to the surface so that it can more effectively release its spores, but I can’t find anything online to back that up. Instead, everyone seems to want me to buy militaris (more on that later). The Scarlet Caterpillar Club infects the larvae and pupae of a variety of caterpillars and moths. Before they emerge as adults, the host insects live either underground or in decaying wood, so C. militaris mushrooms often look like a generic club fungus or earth tongue look-alike. If you dig beneath the surface, however, you will find the mummified remains of the host insect, which provide the nutrients that C. militaris needs to produce spores. Like other members of the Cordyceps...
The parasitic fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infects rainforest ants, turning them into “zombie ants.” The fungus takes over the ants’ minds and directs the ants to die in the most advantageous spot for the fungus. Although this ant/fungus interaction has been known since 1859, it only recently (within the past 5 years) fell under the public eye after a study examined some of the specifics of this interaction. The story starts when a fungal spore lands on the exoskeleton of an unsuspecting ant. The spore germinates and forms an infection structure called an appressorium. This structure is capable of producing enormous pressure (fungal plant pathogens have been known to produce pressures equal to the pressure inside the wheel of a 747) which allows the fungus to penetrate the ant’s exoskeleton. Then, the real fun begins. Ant colonies exhibit a behavior known as “social immunity,” where diseased individuals are forcibly removed from...
![#011: Characteristics of Kingdom Fungi [Archived]](https://www.fungusfactfriday.com/wp-content/themes/hueman/assets/front/img/thumb-small-empty.png)
