Subject: Caterpillar fungus

From: [email-masked] (S. Ertz)
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 12:39:07 GMT

There was an article on the news last night about
caterpillar fungus. Apparently it is being used by
Chinese athletes to boost their performance. I have
never heard of it before, and can't find anything
in the library. If anyone knows its latin name or a
little about its biology, please post it.

Thanks

Sandor

Sandor Ertz, Dept. Plant Sciences, Cambridge, UK
email [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (ROBERT MULROY)
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 15:56:03 GMT

> email [email-masked]

Perhaps they are referring to the fungi that parasitize certain cocoons, My
info on those species must be in the other car.  I'll post with names & etc.
tomorrow.

Bob Mulroy 
UW - Madison 
Dept. Prev. Medicine
All  Disclaimers apply:
(I am a very amateur mycologist)

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From: Kathie Hodge <[email-masked]>
Date: 16 Sep 1993 21:22:01 GMT

S. Ertz, [email-masked] writes:
>Chinese athletes to boost their performance.

Sounds to me like one of several species of Cordyceps, some of which have
been used in traditional Chinese medicine.  I looked up C. sinensis in
_Icons of Medicinal Fungi from China_ (1987, Science Press, Beijing) and
found that it is often prescribed as a tonic or tranquilizer, or for
treating malignant tumours. "When cooked with a duck, it is nutritious
for old people" and it "builds up particularly the gate of vitality."

Cordyceps belongs in the ascomycete order Clavicipitales, and includes
pathogens of both insects and fungi.  One not uncommon species, C.
militaris, is found on the pupae of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). 
It produces a bright orange fingerlike fruiting body, maybe 3 to 10 cm
tall that has a pimpled appearance in the upper half (the pimples are the
protruding necks of the perithecia in which the spores are produced). 
Mushroom identification guides often include a picture of C. militaris,
if you'd like to see one.  The best pictures of all are in Yosio
Kobayashi's _Iconography of Vegetable Wasps and Plant Worms_. These are
beautiful fungi, in a macabre sort of way, and this is about the right
season to find them, at least in North America.

Kathie Hodge, admirer of fungi
[email-masked]