South American Cordyceps s. l. (Hypocreales, Ascomycota): First assessment of species diversity in Argentina

Abstract

In recent years Cordyceps s.l. has been the subject of many studies which have enabled a breakthrough in our understanding of the diversity of species, their distributions, systematics, ecology and mechanisms of fungus-host interaction. Knowledge of the group in Argentina is based on relatively few records that are scattered throughout the literature. In this work, we developed a baseline on the knowledge of Cordyceps s.l. in Argentina through a search of bibliographic records, analysis of existing specimens kept in herbaria and new collections made by the authors. A total of 22 species are recorded from the country, inclunding first records of C. pseudomilitaris, Ophiocordyceps amazonica, and O. melolonthae. Descriptions and illustrations of the new records and an annotated dichotomous key of the known species in Argentina are presented.