Type: Cordyceps_militaris (L.) Fr. Etymology: From Late Greek kordylē, meaning “club” (from Greek, bump, swelling) and Latin -ceps, meaning “-headed”, refers to the club-shaped stroma. Description: Cordyceps is a hypocrealean entomogenous genus, parasitizing several orders of arthropods from larva to adult stages. The majority of the species in Cordyceps have been reported from several countries in Asia such as China, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Taiwan and Thailand, while others have been reported from Europe, South America (Columbia), and North America. Cordyceps species are parasitic on spiders (Araneae) and insects belonging to orders Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera and Orthoptera, in which infections occur at various stages of the insects’ life cycle from larvae to adults. Cordyceps species are characterized by fleshy, pallid to bright yellow, orange or red stromata with crowded or loosely embedded perithecia. At present, three kinds of ascospore morphologies in Cordyceps are known: (1) bola-shaped, whole ascospores characterized by a thin filamentous middle part and fusiform ends, like a skipping rope, (2) filiform, multi-septate, whole ascospores, and (3) filamentous, multi-septate ascospores disarticulating into part-ascospores. The anamorph associated with Cordyceps include species of Isaria, Lecanicillium and Evlachovaea. Host: Insects and Spiders.

Reference: Sung GH, Hywel-Jones NL, Sung JM, et al. (2007). Phylogenetic classification of Cordyceps and the clavicipitaceous fungi. Study in Mycology 57: 5–59. https://doi.org/10.3114/sim.2007.57.01