DSC_2345 Sugar icing fungus (Beauvaria bassiana) which has infected a Chorus cicada (Amphisalta zelandica). The dead adult cicada has been killed by this entomopathogenic fungus. Amphisalta are the largest and best known cicadas in New Zealand. Waipori Gorge *
DSC_9014 West Coast giant forest weta (Hemideina broughi) dead female killed by the entomopathogenic Sugar icing fungus (Beauvaria bassiana) and discovered by Rod on Mount Rochfort in February 2012, during the Bioblitz organised by Forest and Bird to 'Save Denniston Plateau'. Beauveria bassiana is the anamorph (asexually reproducing form) of Cordyceps bassiana. The latter teleomorph (the sexually reproducing form of this fungus) has been collected only in eastern Asia.*
DSC_4863 Vegetable cicada (Cordyceps sinclairii) in situ on forest floor. A native fungus parasitic on root-feeding cicada nymphs which burrow underground. The hyphae of the fungus penetrate the cicada nymph and feed on the internal tissue, killing the nymph. The fungi then sends a branched white stalk up above ground, which is covered in powdery white spores. Ohakune *
