Dark Vegetable Caterpillar (Cordyceps gunnii)

Cordyceps hawkesii Australia,Cordyceps gunnii,Cordyceps hawkesii,Dark Vegetable Caterpillar,Fall,Geotagged

Appearance

After infecting a larva the mycelium invades and eventually replaces the host tissue, while the elongated fruit body (ascocarp) grows towards the surface. This is white and about 15mm thick for up to 200mm, then yellow for about 50mm then black above the ground (up to 60mm) forming tapered, round-tipped clubs. They are often covered with white spore.

Dark Vegetable Caterpillar (Cordyceps gunnii) These look like earth tongues but are fairly large compared to most geoglossum. Above ground they are up to 89mm tall, usually a single tapering spike but sometimes different shapes and double headed. They form from the parasitised larvae of Abantiades or Oxycanus moths and therefore found under endemic acacia species. Overall they can be up to 200mm long white underground, yellow near the surface. (left)
The fine white 'fur' is spore. Australia,Cordyceps gunnii,Dark Vegetable Caterpillar,Fall,Geotagged,cordyceps

Distribution

South eastern and south western Australia including Tasmania

Status

Not at risk.

Habitat

Often under Acacia spp.

Evolution

Specialises in Oxycanus moth species

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

http://fungimap.org.au/index.php/fduonline-home/56/294/clubs/P-cordyceps-gunnii
http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:catalogueoflife.org:taxon:d6d92b54-2dc5-11e0-98c6-2ce70255a436:col20120124#

Taxonomy
Kingdom	Fungi
Division	Ascomycota
Class	Sordariomycetes
Order	Hypocreales
Family	Cordycipitaceae
Genus	Cordyceps
Species	Cordyceps gunnii

Photographed in
Australia