Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (Tul. & C. Tul.) Petch, Trans. Br. mycol. Soc. 16(1): 74 (1931)

Wei, De-Ping, Wanasinghe, Dhanushka N., Hyde, Kevin D., Mortimer, Peter E., Xu, Jianchu, Xiao, Yuan-Pin, Bhunjun, Chitrabhanu S. & To-anun, Chaiwat, 2019, The genus Simplicillium, MycoKeys 60, pp. 69-92 : 69

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (Tul. & C. Tul.) Petch, Trans. Br. mycol. Soc. 16(1): 74 (1931) Figure 6

Description.

Parasitic on ants ( Formicidae ). Sexual morph: Stromata up to 14 mm in length, 0.5 mm wide in the broadest part, cylindrical, brown, slightly tapering towards the apex, single, piercing through the dorsal neck region of the ant host. Ascomatal cushion hemisphere, up to 1.2 mm in diam., laterally attaching to the erect stroma stalk, dark brown, with ostioles protruding from the cushions. Perithecia 200-400 × 50-120 (xˉ = 294 × 81, n = 10) µm, sub-immersed, flask-shaped. Asci and ascospores were too old to observe their features. Asexual morph: Undetermined.

Note.

This collection was already decayed and was colonised by other fungi which we introduced as a new host record of Simplicillium lanosoniveum from Thailand. The outline of this specimen was intact, while its asci and ascospores were too old to analyse. We retrieved DNA through direct sequencing from the stromal tissue.

Sequences generated from this specimen have been deposited in GenBank with accession numbers: SSU = MK752759, LSU = MK752812, ITS = MK752874. The herbarium material is deposited at KUN herbarium, Yunnan Province, China. In the multi-gene phylogenetic tree, this collection groups with Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (OSC 128574) with a strongly supported bootstrap value (100% ML, 1.00 BYPP, 100% MP, Figure 1 ). Therefore, we identify this collection as O. unilateralis , based on its morphologic features and molecular evidence.

Figures

Figure 1. Phylogram generated from maximum likelihood analysis based on combined SSU, LSU, TEF and RPB 1 sequence data. Bootstrap values for maximum likelihood (ML, left) and maximum parsimony (MP, right) equal to or greater than 50 % and Bayesian posterior probabilities (BYPP, middle) equal to or greater than 0.90 are placed nearby the note. The newly generated sequences are indicated in red bold.

Figure 6. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (from HKAS 102447) a stroma emerging from host b ascomata on stroma c host (Formicidae) d, e decayed perithecia. Scale bars: 500 µm (b, c); 300 µm (d); 100 µm (e).