Cordyceps yaoluopingensis Y.Yang, Y.P. Xiao & X Luo, sp. nov.

MycoBank number: MB; Index Fungorum number: IF; Facesoffungi number: FoF 10839;

Etymology: the new species is named after Yaoluoping Nature Reserve, its type locality

Description:

Sexual morph: Undetermined. Asexual morph: Isaria-like. Synnemata arising from the pupae of Lepidoptera, erect, multiple, flexuous, white, fleshy, up to 0.5-0.8 cm long, with terminal branches of 1–2 × 1.2–1.6 mm. Conidiophores 20–50 × 2.2–4.1 μm ( = 35 × 4.25 μm, n = 30), complex verticillate branches with whorls of 2 to 7 phialides, hyaline, smooth-walled. Phialides 6.9–9.8 × 2–3.5 µm ( = 8.35 × 2.75 µm, n = 50), verticillate, globose basal portion with a thin neck about 0.5 µm wide. Conidia 2.0–5.0 × 1.5–2.6 µm ( = 3.5 × 2.05 µm, n = 50), one-celled, broadly fusiform, hyaline, smooth-walled.

Colonies on PDA medium, moderately fast-growing, 2–3 cm diameter in 14 days at 25 °C, white to yellowish, cottony, with low mycelial density, circular. Synnemata 0.6–1.6 × 0.1–0.4 cm ( = 1.1 × 0.25 cm, n = 20), emerging after 15 days in the margin of the colony, single or branched as multiple branches. Hyphae 2.1–4.1 µm wide, smooth-walled, branched, septate, hyaline. Conidiophores 34–62 × 2.5–3.4 µm ( = 48 × 2.95 µm, n = 30), erect, arising from the aerial and prostrate hyphae, verticillate, with phialides in whorls of 3 to 8, smooth-walled, cylindrical to ellipsoidal. Phialides 7.1–11.2 × 3.1–4.2 µm ( = 6.1 × 3.65 µm, n = 50), verticillate, consisting of a swollen, more or less ellipsoidal basal portion, tapering into a thin neck, 0.5–0.8 µm wide. Conidia 4.3–7.0 × 2.1–3.7 µm ( = 5.65 × 2.9 µm, n = 50), hyaline, one-celled, ovoid or fusiform.

Figure 1. Cordyceps yaoluopingensis (holotype: CGMCC 23076). a. Habitat. b, c. Overview of the host and synnemata. d. Synnemata. e. Host. f, g. Conidiophores. h. Conidia. i, j. Culture on PDA. kn. Conidiophores and phialides. o, p. Conidia. Scale bars: I = 2 cm, b, c,j = 1 cm, d, e = 0.5 cm, f ,k ,m = 50 µm, g, l, n = 20 µm, h, o = 5 µm