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White muscardine fungi
1 species
Beauveria is a genus of insect-killing moulds that cause white muscardine disease. The spores attach to an insect, grow through its skin and kill it, and the body is then covered in a white, powdery mould of new spores. Vuillemin erected the genus in 1912, following Jean Beauverie's 1911 study of the fungus. Its type species, B. bassiana, is widely used as a fungal biological insecticide.
White mould forming dense white spore balls. Conidiogenous cells short, ovoid, each with a narrow apical extension (rachis) that elongates in a zig-zag as it bears successive single-celled, hydrophobic conidia. Sexual morphs, where known (e.g. for B. bassiana, collected only in eastern Asia), are Cordyceps-like.
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Mycology is an evolving science: names, classifications and safety information change as research advances. Entries are compiled from cited sources and reviewed, but may be incomplete or out of date — check the sources, and never rely on this library alone to identify or eat a mushroom.
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