---

Cordyceps tenuipes is an entomopathogenic mushroom that commonly grows on cocooned month and butterfly pupae in the order Lepidoptera. The fruiting bodies grow in damp, shady wooded areas in the summer. It can be found eastern North America and can also be found in Mexico, China, and Australia.

The host is sometimes rolled up in a leaf on the forest floor to pupate. The fungus infects the pupa, consumes its body, then grows spore-producing structures (stroma) with white powdery tips out of the leaf "burrito". These fruiting bodies offer a noticeable neon-yellow white color contrast amidst the dark leaf duff for keen-eyed mushroom hunters.

August 3rd, 2023 Field Notes - Indian Cave State Park

Growing from unknown insect host curled in oak leaf in low/moist riparian area, just below mixed oak/hickory woodland slope.

• Several light tan stroma with white powdery tips that easily rub off on contact.
• 2nd and 3rd specimens found among oak leaf litter roughly 10 meters away.