Metarhizium guizhouense Q.T. Chen & H.L. Guo,

Acta Mycol. Sin. 5(3): 181 (1986)

(FIGURE. 8)

Index Fungorum Number: 130206

Specimen found on stick insects ( Phasmatodea). Host’s internodes between abdominal segments were covered with white to pale green mycelium and sporulating conidiophores. Conidiophores arising from hyphae, smooth-walled. Phialides cylindrical, solitary, smooth-walled, 8–18 × 1–1.5 μm. Conidia smooth-walled, pale green to colorless (6.5– 9.5 × 2.5–3 μm), cylindrical, slightly constricted in the middle, round at both ends or tapered at one end. Bi-celled conidium was not observed.

Culture characteristics:— Colonies on PDA were relatively slow-growing, fluffy, beginning to white, and the spores appear green, started to produce conidia after 3 days in culture at 25 °C in the laboratory, 17 mm diam. after 10 days. Mature conidia chains are often spread on the surface of the colony in small granular clumps. Hyphae hyaline, separated, branched, about 3 um wide.

Material examined:— China, Guizhou Province, Guiyang, on dead stick insects, July 2019, Q.R. L, 2019GY03 (GMB0010), living cultures, GMBC0010 (new host record) .

Known hosts and distribution:— Guizhou

Known hosts:— larvae of Noctuidae sp ., stick insects

GenBank Numbers:— ITS: MW881444, LSU: MW 881450, RPB2: MW 883344

Note:— Metarhizium guizhouense, isolated on Hepialus sp . in Guizhou China, was introduced by Guo et al. (1986). In 1991, Liang et al. reported a M. taii Z.Q. Liang & A.Y. Liu on larvae of Noctuidae sp . ( Lepidoptera). Metacordyceps taii was recognized to be the sexual morph of M. guizhouense by Bischoff et al. (2009). Qu et al. also reported that M. taii should be treated as a synonym of M. guizhouense based on molecular data. This is the first report of M. guizhouense isolated on stick insects ( Phasmatodea).