Cordyceps irangiensis Moureau, Lejeunia, Mem. 15: 33 (1961)

Anamorph state: Hymenostilbe aurantiaca Hywel-Jones

No description

Specimens were found in the leaf litter of humid forest only during the wet season (May to October) or after sporadic heavy rainfall in the area of collection. Hosts are ants (Hymenoptera: Formicinae). Stroma arising from between the head and thorax of adult worker ants, usually single, sometimes multiple, 25-60 mm long, 200-700 μm in diam., pale cream yellow to ochraceous yellow or orange. Fertile head terminal, ovoid to sub-cylindric, often citriform with a prominent, eccentric beak, 2.8-5.7 x 1.2-1.8 mm. Perithecia immersed obliquely, ostioles projecting, elongate flask-shaped, up to 1000 μm long 150-200 μm wide, ascomatal walls hyaline. Asci cylindric, hyaline, capitate, 8-spored, up to 900 μm long 6-8 μm wide. Ascus cap rounded, 8-9 μm long 6.7-9.3 μm wide. Ascospores filiform, up to 700 μm long, multiseptate, breaking into (sixty-four) part-spores. Part-spores hyaline, fusoid, 8.5-12.5 x 1.3-2.3 μm. In culture the colonies on PDA are slow-growing, attaining a diam. of 5-10 mm in 1 mo at 25°C. Ophiocordyceps irangiensis has been found throughout Thailand from Doi Inthanon National Park in the north to Hala Bala National Park on the Malay border. The anamorph appears first and only later does the teleomorph head swell and develop. This is usually present throughout the rainy season in small but steady numbers.