Isaria tenuipes Peck
Family: Cordycipitaceae
Isaria tenuipes image
Nigel Hywel-Jones  
Mata, M., D. Penjor and S. Pradham. 2010. Fungi of Bhutan. National Mushroom Centre, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Thimphu, Bhutan.

Local name: No local name known

Edibility: Too small and inconspicuous for culinary purposes, but see comments.

Habitat: On moth larvae and pupae (Lepidoptera) in the leaf litter.

Description: Stroma: Conspicuous, lemon-yellow, 10-20(-50) mm long and up to 500 µm diam., solitary or multiple, irregularly branched becoming white with conidia. Conidiophores: Smooth-walled, hyaline, with densely clustered phialides, ca. 100 µm long x 2.5-4 µm wide. Phialides: 4.5-7 µm long x 2.5-3 µm wide. Conidia: Slightly curved (kidney-shaped), hyaline 2.0-8.0 µm long x 1-1.5 µm wide.

Comments: This species was first described from North America but has a wide distribution throughout Asia. It is found in forests up to 3500 metres in Bhutan. There is no record of this species having been used in Bhutanese Traditional Medicine. However, it is cultivated for use in Korean/Japanese Traditional Medicine.