Macabre Fungi
Autumn might be the best time of year for finding fungi, but since summer I’ve been on the lookout for bizarre fungi with a rather horrible history.
Cicada infected by a fungus
It all started back in February when a friend pointed out some white fungus sprouting out of the ground, like little trees. See below:
Cordyceps sinclairii
I’d heard of fungi that attacked insects. But seeing any seemed a remote possibility - wasn’t that the stuff of TV nature documentaries? Well no, it seems they’re common enough if you only know what to look for. Cordyceps sinclairii (in the photo above) infects the larvae of cicadas which die just before they reach the surface of the soil. Out sprout the fruiting bodies - these little tree-like structures with white spores - and the spores disperse.
Now I began seeing them on bush tracks everywhere.
People talk about “getting your eye in” meaning to become more skilful at something. But it’s literally how it seems out in nature, the more you learn about something, the more you see. And you develop an “eye'“ for the particular shape of a fungus or movement of an animal.
Cicada infected by a fungus from the Order Hypocreales
I found an adult cicada that had met a similar fate. Several people suggested this was an example of ‘icing sugar fungus’ - scientific name Beauveria bassiana. But on iNaturalist I found out that there are over 1000 different species of fungi that attack insects or insect larvae. All that could be determined is that this one is in the Order Hypocreales. (The scentific system breaks down from Order into Family, Genus, Species.) The scientist who looked at the photos suggested that the greenish tinge could mean this is in the Genus Metarhizium.
There’s an impressive word for this kind of fungi - Entomopathogenic. “Entomo-” refers to insects and “pathogen” to something that infects. A spore lands on the insects exterior and It seems they are usually fatal. If you are showing these fungi to children, do point out that they only infect insects, otherwise this could be the stuff of nightmares.
Chafer beetle infected by an entomopathogenic fungus
You can follow my attempts to identify fungi and other living things on iNaturalist at https://inaturalist.nz/people/candler
The fungi in these photos were all found in the Wellington region in Kaitoke Regional Park, Belmont Regional Park and East Harbour Regional Park.