What is it Wednesday: October 28, 2020

 

Can you identify what's in this photo?

 

 

Each Wednesday morning 

on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page

 the Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program posts a photo. 

 

 

Readers have all morning and afternoon 

to make their best guess about what the photo is. 

 

Around 6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.

 

 

Each week's What is it Wednesday post 

will also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

 after it is posted on Facebook,

sometimes with additional bonus information. 

 

In addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday 

on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

we will be reposting old editions,

creating a What is it Wednesday archive. 

 

This photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday on

October 28, 2020. 

 

 

 

And the answer is....

This is a dead moth covered by a cordyceps fungus.

There are over 400 species of cordyceps fungus worldwide, most in Asia, but a handful are found in Pennsylvania. Some grow on the larvae and pupae of insects, and others grow off of other fungi. Some produce visible club mushrooms above the surface of the soil. And some, occasionally, parasitize adult moths like this one.

In conditions with the correct temperature and high humidity, spores from the fungus land on an insect and penetrate its body. As the fungus begins to infest the insect, the insect often moves to a high resting place, like the end of a branch. The fungus then develops further inside the insect and eventually emerges to its surface, completely covering it and killing it. The strands that extend from the surface of the fungus, along with the high resting place of the insect, make it easier for the new spores of the fungus to disperse.

Fungi that function this way are called entomopathogenic -- entomo means having to do with insects and a pathogen is an organism that causes disease or harm to its host. Some types of entomopathogenic  cordyceps fungi that control their hosts’ behavior are called “zombie fungus” – spooky! Other types of cordyceps mushrooms are valued in traditional Chinese medicine or are being studied as possible natural insect controls. Happy Halloween everyone!