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Project Noah Nature School
Paecilomyces tenuipes
A white soft branched growth with fimbriated tips. Each of the branches would have been about 20mm in length. It was difficult to get a closer look at this fungus because of where it was growing but a close look at the photograph shows the base of the growth appears to have green coloured stalks.
Found growing out of damp earth which had leaf litter and rotting wood.
A big thank you to Clive Shirley for helping me with a ID for this fungus and information. This is an asexual form of cordyceps which infects the larvae or adult insects, slowly killing them while producing their own fruiting bodies (conidiophores). The greenish-yellow parts of the fungus is the stipe. To find the host arthropod, I would have to dig the earth out - perhaps a cicada nymph.
Spotted on Mar 20, 2012
Submitted on Mar 21, 2012
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