Pleurocordyceps Y.J. Yao, Y.H. Wang, S. Ban, W.J. Wang, Yi Li, Ke Wang & P.M. Kirk, J. Syst. Evol. (2020)

MycoBank number: MB 570683; Index Fungorum number: IF 570683; Facesoffungi number: FoF 10737;

Parasitic or hyperparasitic on insects or fungi. Sexual morph: Stromata solitary to numerous, fleshy, cylindrical, unbranched, or branched, reddish brown to yellow, stipitate, growing from the head or the whole body of the host. Stipe pigment, cylindrical, sterile tip curved or twisted, with or without a fertile part. Fertile part capitate on the top or laterally on the stipe, white to yellow or brown. Perithecia immersed in an apical or subapical pulvinate cushion, scattered to gregarious, pyriform, or ovoid, with protruding ostioles. Asci cylindrical, hyaline, with apical cap and thick walled. Ascospores filiform, cylindrical, hyaline, breaking into secondary spores. Secondary spores cylindrical, hyaline, nearly equal length (adapted from Matočec et al. 2014, Xiao et al. 2018, Wang et al. 2021). Asexual morph: Hyphomycetous. Synnemata absent or present, white to yellow, solitary to caespitose, stiptate, unbranched or branched, clavate or spatulate or cylindrical, with or without fertile head covered conidia masses. Stipe clavate or spatulate or cylindrical, white to yellowish, with or without fertile head on the top or below the apex. Conidial mass absent or present, yellowish to yellow, on the surface of colony on the host or the surface of the fertile part. Fertile part absent or present, yellowish to yellow, awl-shaped to cylindrical to globose, on the top or below the top. Conidiophores simple or with several phialides, unbranched or branched, hyaline. Metulae absent or present, smooth, hyaline. Phialides (conidiogenous cells) usually two types, sometimes only one type observed on the fresh specimen, , verticillately branching, α-phialides verticillate and acropleurogenous on conidiophores, cylindrical to subulate at the base, gradually tapering into a long neck: β-phialides acropleurogenous and solitary, narrow lageniform or subulate, tapering abruptly from the base to the apex. Conidia one-celled, hyaline, smooth, normally two types in culture, rarely two types on fresh specimen, α-conidia globose to subglobose or ellipsoidal, forming conidial masses from the fertile head; β-conidia fusiform, produced along stipe as well as on the mycelium surface of the colony, single, often in chains (adapted from Matočec et al. 2014, Xiao et al. 2018, Wang et al. 2021).

Type species: Pleurocordyceps sinensis (Q.T. Chen, S.R. Xiao & Z.Y. Shi) W.J. Wang, X.L. Wang, Y. Li, S.R. Xiao & Y.J. Yao 2012.

Fig. 15. Pleurocordyceps sinensis (Holotype: HMAS 43720; a, redrawn from Chen et al. 1984. Ex-type: CN 80-2, b–e, redrawn from Wang et al. 2012). a Overview of Pleurocordyceps sinensis with the host. b Phialides with conidia. c Irregular conidial balls on phialides. d α-conidia. e β-conidia. Scale Bars: b, c = 10 µm, d, e = 5 µm.