Galapagos Species Database

The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.

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Hirsutella saussurei (Cooke) Speare

Hongo entomógeno, Entomogenous fungus

Polistes versicolor (Vespidae) infected by the entomopathogenic fungus, Hirsutella saussurei at Media Luna, Santa Cruz Photo: O. Mollá & H. Herrera.
Polistes versicolor (Vespidae) infected by the entomopathogenic fungus, Hirsutella saussurei at Media Luna, Santa Cruz Photo: O. Mollá & H. Herrera.

Pathogenic fungus that can infect different groups of insects. H. saussurei is characerized by synnemata aerial or procumbent and appressed to the substratum, arising from various parts of the body and appendages of the host, slender, terete, somewhat attenuated upward, very variable in length, 1-7mm long, 0.1-0.3mm thick, light brown, composed of closely compacted, parallel, longitudinal, and 2-4u wide hyphae; phialides scattered to moderately crowded, arising as lateral cells or buds form the outer hyphae of the synnema or as terminal cells of short lateral branches, the lower portions cylindrical, obovoid or ellipsoid, 7-16 x 3-6 u, attenuated above into slender sterigmata 10-40u long (Mains, 1951; Mollá et al., 2020)

Taxonomy

Domain
Eukaryota

Kingdom
Fungi

Phylum
Ascomycota

Class
Sordariomycetes

Order
Hypocreales

Family
Ophiocordycipitaceae

Genus
Hirsutella

Species
saussurei

Taxon category: Accepted

Origin: Introduced - established

Introduction

Year of first record: 2018

Mode of introduction: Accidental

Introduction Pathway: Contaminant

Subpathway: Parasites/pathogens on animals

Introduced status: Coexists with introduced species

Invasive status: No data

Distribution

Map of specimen collection localities or observation records for this species in our collections database.

Distribution: Santa Cruz and Floreana (humid zone in the highlands).

References

  • Mains, E.B. (1951) Entomogenous species of Hirsutella, Tilachlidium and Synnematium. Mains, E. B., 1951. Entomogenous species of Hirsutella, Tilachlidium and Synnematium. Mycologia 43 (6), 691-718. https://doi.org/10.1080/00275514.1951.12024164.
  • Óscar Mollá Bhushan Shrestha (2020) First record of Hirsutella saussurei in the Galápagos Islands and first evidence parasitizing the invasive paper wasp, Polistes versicolor Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 64(2):e20200031, 2020 https://

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This page should be cited as follows:

"Galapagos Species Database, Hirsutella saussurei", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist?species=19225. Accessed 9 May 2026.