Cordyceps ningxiaensis Tolgor Bau & J.Q. Yan

Zha, Ling-Sheng, Wen, Ting-Chi, Huang, Shi-Ke, Boonmee, Saranyaphat & Eungwanichayapant, Prapassorn D., 2019, Taxonomy and biology of Cordyceps qingchengensis sp. nov. and its allies, Phytotaxa 416 (1), pp. 14-24 : 22

Cordyceps ningxiaensis Tolgor Bau & J.Q. Yan ( Fig. 7a, b )

Notes:— Cordyceps ningxiaensis was introduced by Yan & Bau (2015) with the type from Liupanshan Mountain, Longde County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China. The species is morphologically similar and phylogenetically related to C. militaris (L.) Link and its allies ( Figs 1 , 5 ). Hosts of C. ningxiaensis , which had originally been identified as fly pupae (Diptera), are actually Scoliidae pupae ( Hymenoptera ,) that parasitize the bodies of Scarabaeidae larvae ( Coleoptera ).

In nature, scoliid wasps ( Scoliidae ) are the natural enemy of Scarabaeidae larvae. The female scoliid wasps can bury themselves into soil freely to look for Scarabaeidae larvae. They sting and anaesthetize the larvae, then lay eggs into their bodies which later hatch and become larvae. Using tissues of the Scarabaeidae larvae as nutrition, the wasp larvae will grow and the Scarabaeidae larvae will be consumed, until all tissues have been eaten and only exocuticle left, the wasp larvae will become pupae and finally adults ( Fabre 1886).

During the process of pupation, once the soil layer cover is shallow and sufficiently humid, the old larvae of scoliid wasps may easily be infected by the ascospores or conidia of C. ningxiaensis that attach to their body surface. After being successfully infected, the insects will be killed in their pupal stage. When environmental conditions are suitable for the fungus, its fruiting bodies will break through the pupae, and a piece of ragged exocuticle of a Scarabaeidae larva is left beside the host.

Recently, a similar hyperparasite was discovered in a specimen of C. cf. militaris ( Fig. 7c, d ) collected in Changbai Mountain, Jilin, China. The host, which seems to be a Lepidoptera cocooned pupa, is in fact Braconidae naked pupae ( Hymenoptera ) that parasitized the cocoon. Apart from the different host species, its biology is similar to that of C. ningxiaensis .

Figures

FIGURE 1. ML tree of Cordyceps qingchengensis sp. nov. and its allies inferred from a combined SSU, LSU and TEF1-α dataset. Bootstrap support values greater than 70% are indicated above the nodes.

FIGURE 5. NJ tree of Cordyceps qingchengensis and its allies inferred from ITS gene data. Bootstrap values greater than 75% are indicated above the nodes.

FIGURE 7. Two Cordyceps species growing on Hymenoptera pupae. a, b. C. ningxiaensis (type specimen) growing on Scoliidae pupae that parasitized a Scarabaeidae larva (the Scarabaeidae larva had already been eaten by the Scoliidae insects). c, d. C. cf. militaris growing on Braconidae naked pupae that parasitize a Lepidoptera cocooned pupa (the ovate cocoon was cut open, three infected pupae are hidden in it, and the Lepidoptera pupa had already been eaten by the Braconidae larvae). Scale bars = 5 mm.