Metarhizium is a genus of entomopathogenic fungi

Entomopathogenic fungus

An entomopathogenic fungus is a fungus that can act as a parasite of insects and kills or seriously disables them.-Typical life cycle:These fungi usually attach to the external body surface of insects in the form of microscopic spores...

 in the Clavicipitaceae

Clavicipitaceae

Clavicipitaceae is a family of fungi within the order Hypocreales. It consists of 43 genera, and 321 species.-Phylogeny:Molecular phylogenetic analysis of multigene DNA sequence data indicates that the taxon, Clavicipitaceae, is paraphyletic, and consists of three well-defined clades, at least one...

 family. With the advent of genetic profiling, it has now become possible to place these fungi in proper taxa. Most turn out to be the asexual forms (anamorphs) of fungi in the phylum Ascomycota

Ascomycota

The Ascomycota are a Division/Phylum of the kingdom Fungi, and subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the Sac fungi. They are the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species...

.

Species

Nine distinct species have now been assigned to the well-known Metarhizium anisopliae

Metarhizium anisopliae

Metarhizium anisopliae, formerly known as Entomophthora anisopliae , is a fungus that grows naturally in soils throughout the world and causes disease in various insects by acting as a parasite. Ilya I. Mechnikov named it after the insect species it was originally isolated from: the beetle...

:

• M. anisopliae
  Metarhizium anisopliae
  Metarhizium anisopliae, formerly known as Entomophthora anisopliae , is a fungus that grows naturally in soils throughout the world and causes disease in various insects by acting as a parasite. Ilya I. Mechnikov named it after the insect species it was originally isolated from: the beetle...
  
  that includes many isolates previously described as M. anisopliae var. anisopliae
• M. guizhouense (syn. M. taii)
• M. pingshaense
• M. acridum
  Metarhizium acridum
  Metarhizium acridum is the new name given to a group of fungal isolates that are known to be virulent and specific to Acrididea. Previously, this species has had variety status in Metarhizium anisopliae and before that, reference was made to M. flavoviride.- Biology :M...
  
  stat. nov. (= M. anisopliae var. acridum)
• M. lepidiotae stat. nov. (= M. anisopliae var. lepidiotae)
• M. majus
  Metarhizium majus
  Metarhizium majus is the new name given to a group of fungal isolates that are known to be virulent against Scarabaeidae, a family of beetles. Previously, this species has had variety status in Metarhizium anisopliae and its name is derived from characteristically very large spores for the genus...
  
  stat. nov. (= M. anisopliae var. major)
• M. globosum sp. nov.
• M. robertsii sp. nov.
• M. brunneum

Species long recognised as distinct:

• M. album
• M. flavoviride
  Metarhizium flavoviride
  Metarhizium flavoviride is the name given to a group of fungal isolates that are known to be virulent against Hemiptera and some Coleoptera...
  
  
• M. frigidum

The teleomorphs of Metarhizium species appear to be members of the genus Metacordyceps

Metacordyceps

Metacordyceps is a genus of fungi within the Clavicipitaceae family.. The anamorphs of Metacordyceps appear to include Metarhizium species.-External links:*...

. Metacordyceps taii (as Cordyceps taii) has been described as the teleomorph of Metarhizium taii and was later synonymised with M. anisopliae var. anisopliae, but it is now described as a synonym of M. guizhouense.

It is not yet clear whether the other varieties of M. anisopliae have their own teleomorphs. It is, however, possible that some, if not most, strains of M. anisopliae have lost the capability of reproducing sexually.

External links

• Index Fungorum