Allocordyceps

Allocordyceps Temporal range: Middle Eocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Restoration of A. baltica on Camponotus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Fungi
Division:	Ascomycota
Class:	Sordariomycetes
Order:	Hypocreales
Family:	Clavicipitaceae
Genus:	Allocordyceps Poinar
Type species
Allocordyceps baltica Poinar

Allocordyceps is an extinct genus of parasitic fungus in the order Hypocreales that parasitized carpenter ants. ^[1] The fossil of Allocordyceps baltica, from the Baltic Amber, represents the oldest known fossil of an ant-parasitizing fungus before Ophiocordyceps . ^{[2] [3]}

Carpenter ants, similar to the host parasitized by A. baltica

Description

Allocordyceps is characterized by its ascoma being an orange color, stalked and cusp shaped. It also has a pair of partially immersed perithecia that emerges from the rectum. Hosts parasitized by Allocordyceps have separate stromata with separate mycelium emerging from the neck and abdomen. ^[3] It may have altered its host's behavior similarly to the extant Ophiocordyceps unilateralis .

References

1. "Carpenter Ants Management Guidelines--UC IPM". ipm.ucanr.edu. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
2. "How a parasitic fungus turns ants into 'zombies'". Animals. 2019-04-18. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
3. Poinar, George; Maltier, Yves-Marie (November 2021). "Allocordyceps baltica gen. et sp. nov. (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae), an ancient fungal parasite of an ant in Baltic amber". Fungal Biology. 125 (11): 886–890. Bibcode:2021FunB..125..886P. doi:10.1016/j.funbio.2021.06.002. PMID   34649675.