Cordyceps subsessilis Petch, Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc. 21: 39. 1937.
Cordyceps facis Kobayasi & Shimizu, Trans. Mycol. Soc. Japan 23: 361. 1982.
Stromata solitary, arising from Coleopteran larvae, buried in wood. Stromata whitish, 45-150 mm in height, 1-5 mm thick, irregularly shaped, astipitate to irregularly stipitate, often bifurcating, constisting of loosely woven hyaline hyphae, bearing pads of perithecia which appear at surface of wood.
Perithecia narrowly ovoid to conoid, psedudoimmersed, produced on a lateral pad, large, 800-1100 x 320-450 um, yellow to brown, with walls well differentiated.
Asci cylindrical, 430-600 x 3-4 um, apical cap 2 um in diameter.
Ascospores filiform, hyaline, disarticulating into partspores. Partspores truncate, 3-6 x 0.5-1 um.
on larva Scarabaeidae (Coleoptera)
Hodge et al. (1996) treated C. facis Kobayasi & Shimizu as a synonym of C. subsessilis Petch. Sung et al. (2007) transferred C. subsessilis Petch to the new genus Elaphocordyceps and followed Hodge et al.'s treatment of C. facis. Additional research is needed, however, to clarify the species boundaries among the collections of C. subsessilis with respect to biogeography (e.g., Japan vs. North America), host affiliation (numerous families of Coleoptera) and habitat preference (host occurring within soil, dung or buried in wood). Specimens have been reported from Tennessee, North Carolina, Michigan, New York, and Washington in the United States.
Hodge, KT, Krasnoff SB, Humber RA. 1996. Tolypocladium inflatum is the anamorph of Cordyceps subsessilis. Mycologia. 88:715-719.
Sung, G-H, Hywel-Jones NL, Sung J-M, Luangsa-ard J, Shrestha B, Spatafora JW. 2007. Phylogenetic classification of Cordyceps and the clavicipitaceous fungi. Studies in Mycology 57: 5-63.
