Anamorph state: Nomuraea atypicola (Yasuda) Samson

Specimens were found buried in forest soil. Hosts are spiders (Araneae). Stroma usually single, rarely 2-3, arising from head of host, fleshy, 50 x 2 mm, composed of a simple stipe and clavate fertile part. Mycelia covering the whole body of host. Perithecia immersed, flask-shaped with long neck, 1000-1300 x 200-300 µm, wall 10 µm thick, with the ostioles opening on the surface of the stroma. Asci filiform, hyaline, 570-800 x 4.5-5.5 µm. Ascospores filiform, hyaline, multiseptate, easily breaking into part-spores. Part-spores 7-10 x 1.5-2 µm, cylindrical with truncate ends. In culture the colonies on PDA are relatively fast-growing, attaining a diam. of 10 mm in 14 d at 25˚C. Colonies are floccose, white, changing to grayish-purple when conidial production starts. This is a very rare species to find in Thailand. The first collection was from Sam Lan National Park in 1993 (Hywel-Jones,1995) with a second collection from Chiang Dao Wildlife Sanctuary in 2011.

Kobayasi, Y. & Shimizu, D. (1977). Some species of Cordyceps and its allies on spiders. Kew Bulletin, 31: 557-566. Petch, T. (1937). Notes on entomogenous fungi. Transactions of the British Mycological Society, 21: 34-67. Hywel-Jones, N.L. & Sivichai, S. (1995). Cordyceps cylindrica and its association with Nomuraea atypicola in Thailand. Mycological Research 99: 809-812.