GENESIS OF CATERPILLAR FUNGUS

The caterpillar of a moth genus THITARODES (Hepialus) lives underground in alpine grass and shrublands on the Tibetian Plateau and Himalayas (at an altitude of 3000-5000 m) spending up to 5 years underground before pupating, feeding on roots of a plants. During this larvae state, the caterpillar is attacked by a fungus of the genus OPHIOCORDYCIPITACEAE. (It is not certain how the fungus infects the caterpillar - possibly by ingestion of a fungal spore or by the fungus mycelium, invading the insect through its breathing pores.) The fungus fills its entire body cavity with mycelium, eventually killing and mummifying the insect. Before this happens, somehow, the fungus causes the caterpillar to get near the top of its burrow. In springtime, after the snow melts, mushrooms emerge from the ground, always growing out of forehead of the caterpillar. The size of a mature mushroom reaches 5-15 cm above the surface and relaeases its spores onto the ground, and the cycle repeats.