Dark Vegetable Caterpillar (Parasitic fungus)

Description:

Poking out of the ground to about 90 mm were a number of these black club-shaped fruiting bodies. Structurally they were differentiated into black clubs above and pale greenish yellow stems below. The older thicker clubs had white fluffy material on the dark clubs.

Habitat:

Spotted under a mature Acacia tree. There were about 20 and all well separated.

Notes:

The white material on the fruiting bodies are thread-like spores. They break up into 3 -5 mm long part spores which penetrate the ground and infect caterpillars of moths which could be well below the surface, even up to 40 cms. The fungus consumes the soft tissue of the host and grows up wards to the ground surface were black fruiting bodies appear and thicken to maturity. Moth larvae of the genus Oxycanus ( Hepialidae) are said to be the common hosts to this fungus.
Formerly called Cordyceps gunnii Order: Hypocreales
family: Cordycipitaceae