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Arthropod Pathogenic Fungi

This article is an effort to bring together all of BugGuide's images of bugs that have been attacked by fungi. Clicking a thumbnail will take you to the full-sized image, which may be linked to additional images of the same individual. If you come across images that are not shown here--particularly of different fungi or different victims--please add links to them in the comments below.

Check out this video to learn a bit about Cordyceps, a mostly tropical genus of fungus that can be found in the southeastern US. (In the Amazon, there are treehoppers in the genus Bocydium that appear to mimic these fungi. Some examples are shown here.) There is more information about Cordyceps and related fungi here. There are many other types of arthropod pathogenic fungi. If you come across good information about them, please post links etc. below and I will incorporate them here.

Life cycle information, along with many references, can be found in:
Roy, H. E., D.C. Steinkraus, J. Eilenberg, A.E. Hajek, and J.K. Pell. 2006. Bizarre interactions and endgames: entomopathogenic fungi and their arthropod hosts. Annual Review of Entomology 51:331-57.

Also see:
Hajek, Ann E., Kelsey L. Scott, Sergio R. Sanchez-Peña, Cezary Tkaczuk, Brian Lovett, and Kathryn E. Bushley. 2025. Annotated checklist of arthropod-pathogenic species in the Entomophthoromycotina (Fungi, Zoopagomycota) in North America. MycoKeys 114: 329-366. Available online here.

Spiders
Most, if not all, of these spiders are afflicted with species of Gibellula (a.k.a. Torrubiella). Kathie Hodge's article here shows examples of Gibellula pulchra and Nomuraea atypicola.

Cellar spiders with Engyodontium aranearum (previously identified as Torrubiella pulvinata; see discussion here)

Harvestmen
Pandora phalangicida is a harvestman-specific fungus. Also see Kathie Hodge's photo here.

Grasshoppers and Crickets
Some information about Entomophaga grylli here

Earwigs

Cockroaches

True Bugs

Leafhoppers, Planthoppers and Cicadas

Aphids

Barklice

Lacewings

Beetles

Goldenrod Soldier Beetles infected with Eryniopsis lampyridarum

Ladybugs with Laboulbeniales fungi (see more here)

Ants and Wasps

Caddisflies infected with Erynia rhizospora

This one apparently has some other kind of fungus:

Moths

Also see the bottom of this page.
Cordyceps militaris on moth pupa:

Caterpillars -- some of these may be killed by a virus or bacterium rather than a fungus:

Flies
See Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month page for Entomophthora muscae.

This still-living calliphorid appears to be in the process of succumbing to a fungus:

Snipe flies with Furia ithacensis:

Cordyceps variabilis on Xylophagidae larva:

Some infected fly larvae found in leaf litter:

Millipedes
These millipedes are victims of Arthrophaga myriapodina, described in this paper.

Miscellaneous Arthropods With Afflictions That May Or May Not Be Fungus-related

Images Submitted To This Page That Have Been Determined To Depict Victims Of Something Other Than A Fungus

Contributed by Charley Eiseman on 3 October, 2008 - 12:12pm
Last updated 6 March, 2025 - 9:06am

Checklist just published

For anyone who really wants to dig into this topic, an "Annotated checklist of arthropod-pathogenic species in the Entomophthoromycotina (Fungi, Zoopagomycota) in North America" was just published; it's available here.

… Charley Eiseman, 6 March, 2025 - 9:08am

Mompha pupa

… John van der Linden, 19 December, 2024 - 9:26am

Looks like...

A leafhopper:

… Bob Biagi, 15 September, 2023 - 5:37pm

Basidiobolus

I've solved recently a small personal mystery. I've observed at some occasion small structures on some soil arthropods: I wasn't sure it they where small eggs or conidium, but I've finally identified them as capilliconidia of Basidiobolus (Basidiobolales) fungi.

On a Trechus apicalis (Carabidae)

On Trichoniscus pusillus (Isopoda: Trichoniscidae)

Reference: Blackwell & Malloch (1989). Similarity of Amphoromorpha and Secondary Capilliconidia of Basidiobolus. Mycologia, 81(5), 735. https://doi.org/10.2307/3759878

… Pierre-Marc Brousseau, 7 May, 2022 - 2:17pm

Graphocephala

… Aaron Hunt, 22 January, 2022 - 4:15pm

Spotted Lanternfly with Beauveria bassiana

… Dan Leeder, 31 October, 2021 - 8:51am

Agonum extensicolle - Laboulbeniales

… Brad Barnd, 29 October, 2021 - 4:43pm

Trichoptera: Platycentropus

… Pierre-Marc Brousseau, 29 June, 2021 - 7:05pm

Closterotomus norvegicus

… Harsi S. Parker, 19 November, 2019 - 11:23am

Toxomerus

… Beatriz Moisset, 15 November, 2019 - 1:25pm

Caddisfly

… Bob Biagi, 8 August, 2019 - 11:55pm

oops!

… Bob Biagi, 8 August, 2019 - 11:55pm

Piesmatidae

… Ken Wolgemuth, 1 July, 2019 - 3:05pm

Mirid

… Michael Skvarla, 5 February, 2019 - 10:24am

Curious

Something I've wondered about (sometimes hard for me to tell) when I've found an insect with fungus, was the insect killed by the fungus or did the fungus come after the insect was dead?

… MJ Hatfield, 5 February, 2019 - 10:56am

Caddisfly

… Bob Biagi, 26 November, 2018 - 9:15am

Flies

and possibly

… Graham Montgomery, 8 August, 2018 - 9:44pm

Muscoidea

… Beatriz Moisset, 17 March, 2018 - 6:00pm

Trichotichnus autumnalis

Maybe a parasitic fungus?

… Curt Harden, 23 November, 2017 - 9:43am

Goldenrod Soldier Beetle

Chauliognathus pensylvanicus

… Bob Biagi, 19 September, 2017 - 3:28pm

More millipedes...

Charley, looks like perhaps you have neglected to include your own images. :)

For those that are interested, there are also many more fascinating images taken by Mike Deep of several millipedes found on the same day. All of the separate posts can be found by clicking here.

… Harsi S. Parker, 16 September, 2017 - 12:37am

Apheloria virginiensis (Millipede)

I'm not sure if this fungus is the same as the others, but it seems likely. I have not read Kathie's article yet. (see comment below)

… Bob Biagi, 13 September, 2017 - 9:29am

the new name of that millipede fungus

We recently described the very cool fungus in the northeast that kills polydesmid millipedes (Apheloria, Nannaria, Boraria). We named the fungus Arthrophaga myriapodina. Email me via the address in my profile if you'd like a reprint, or see http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022201117301842

… Kathie Hodge, 12 September, 2017 - 9:51pm

Microvelia

… Brad Barnd, 14 August, 2017 - 3:09pm

Psyllobora vigintimaculata

Charley, I believe this is the first Psyllobora species recorded on BugGuide.

… Harsi S. Parker, 13 August, 2017 - 10:58pm

earwig

… metrioptera, 21 June, 2017 - 10:02am

Millipede

… Ken Wolgemuth, 21 April, 2017 - 6:46pm

Crane fly

Possible fungus kill, but not sure

… John van der Linden, 23 January, 2017 - 5:56pm

[thumb:1332454]

… metrioptera, 17 January, 2017 - 7:07pm

Two planthoppers

… Beatriz Moisset, 17 October, 2016 - 7:35am

Flatormenis

Isn't the nymph just naturally fuzzy?

… Charley Eiseman, 17 October, 2016 - 9:31am

It could be

… Beatriz Moisset, 17 October, 2016 - 10:42am

Hypochilus pococki with fungus

… Joshua Coogler, 22 January, 2016 - 7:14am

Platycheirus

… Debbi Brusco, 23 October, 2015 - 1:51am

Robber fly

… Ben Coulter, 12 October, 2015 - 1:33pm

Barklouse

… Ken Wolgemuth, 9 September, 2015 - 4:18pm

Cecidomyiidae larva with fungi

… Pierre-Marc Brousseau, 5 February, 2015 - 4:53pm

a moth

… metrioptera, 4 February, 2015 - 5:47pm

Fungus gnat larva with fungi (maybe Cordyceps?)

… Pierre-Marc Brousseau, 9 January, 2015 - 7:20pm

grasshopper with fungus

… metrioptera, 9 January, 2015 - 5:16am

Apparent Caddisflies

… Ken Wolgemuth, 15 October, 2014 - 8:44pm

apparent caddisflies

Thank you for shedding light on this for me. I was curious about the way the strange, outer translucent/fuzziness "sheathed" the mysterious creature beneath. It did make me think of a fungus, or some type of decay. Now I know! "Entomophagous fungi". And after looking at the link on fungi that attack caddisflies, it thoroughly makes sense. Thanks again.

… Penny , 15 October, 2014 - 11:07pm

a gryllacridid

… metrioptera, 29 September, 2014 - 4:38pm

another grasshopper

… metrioptera, 23 September, 2014 - 11:06am

grasshopper

… metrioptera, 10 September, 2014 - 5:38pm

Fungi on rove beetle

A fungi on the head of a rove beetle (Carpelimus sp.)

… Pierre-Marc Brousseau, 22 August, 2014 - 8:44pm

… Iustin Cret, 17 August, 2014 - 10:02am

unlucky fly

… metrioptera, 15 August, 2014 - 4:59pm

grasshopper

… metrioptera, 14 August, 2014 - 2:48pm

planthopper with fungus

… metrioptera, 14 August, 2014 - 9:38am

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