Entomophthora sp. (genus)
1 Puppeteer Fungus at Denman Prospect, ACT
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| Entomophthora sp. (genus) | MichaelMulvaney | 17 Jul 2020 | |
| Entomophthora muscae | trevorpreston | 17 Jul 2020 | |
| Entomophthora muscae | trevorpreston | 17 Jul 2020 | |
| Entomophthora sp. | trevorpreston | 17 Jul 2020 | |
| Entomophthora sp. | trevorpreston | 17 Jul 2020 | |
| Unverified | trevorpreston | 17 Jul 2020 |
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6 comments
17 Jul 2020
This has the same fungal infection as the ones I found in Holt near Strathnairn.
17 Jul 2020
I thought i had seen this somewhere before, it mustve been one of your photos. I shouldve put this in under Fungi instead of insects.
17 Jul 2020
I have quite a few books on fungi but i cant find anything like this. Cordyceps is closest, but looks nothing like this as far as I can tell.
17 Jul 2020
After a bit of internet searching Ive suggested Entomophthora sp. You can read a bit about them here.
https://news.berkeley.edu/story_jump/flies-meet-gruesome-end-under-influence-of-puppeteer-fungus/
https://news.berkeley.edu/story_jump/flies-meet-gruesome-end-under-influence-of-puppeteer-fungus/
17 Jul 2020
The comment I received from Ken was 'It is one of what is known as entomopathogenic fungi many of which occur in the orders Entomophthorales and Hypocreales. I suspect this a species of Entomophthora but I'm not familiar enough with these groups to be sure what you have found without examination under a compound microscope.' I was hoping to go back and find specimen to collect., but I don't drive and haven't gotten back there. Any chance you could find it again and collect a specimen for examination?
17 Jul 2020
By the way, the fly was identified as Helina sp. (genus) and this looks like the same fly.
Location information
- Coordinates 149.008611-35.298056
- Altitude 652.0m
- Maps Piney Ridge Bluetts Block (402, 403, 12, 11)
- Places Denman Prospect, ACT
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- 17 Jul 2020 02:43 PM Recorded on
- trevorpreston Recorded by
- 5mm to 12mm Animal size
Collections
- trevorpreston Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr Entomophthora sp. (genus) Not moulds Other fungi Fungi
Species information
- Entomophthora sp. (genus) Scientific name
- Puppeteer Fungus Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 723m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information
Record quality
Quality score
5 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- GPS evidence of location
- Additional attributes
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- Description