August is here, for me that means MycoFest. MycoFest is our annual Mushroom & Arts Festival the first weekend of August every year here in Central Pennsylvania. MycoFest has held its significance in regards to stalking the wild Cordyceps since the beginning in 2015. Cordyceps season is in full swing for us Central Pennsylvanians during August.
This past MycoFest 2019 we led the first Cordyceps foray, foray leaders included Jeff Manganaro, Ryan Paul-Gates, Tugrul DeLuce, and myself. Our first Cordyceps foray was an incredible success. Deep into the Appalachian mountains, we drove, through the country until it became a forest, slowly we cruised down a long gravel road until we reached out destination. We arrived in one of Pennsylvania's beautiful game lands. Fresh spring water feeds a beautiful creek that slowly carves through the rich humus underneath the mix of Hemlock, and Oaks with an understory of rhododendrons, pawpaws, and spicebush.
The ground is soft and covered with moss, you can see the discoloration of where water has pooled during heavy rains, occasionally you notice rocks that have been uncovered by the moving water. This is a perfect Cordyceps habitat. The festival was August 2nd-4th this year (2019). I had foraged the area about a week prior and found more Cordyceps near the creek. In discussions with Jeff, we both agreed that the Cordyceps move away from creeks as the season progresses. During the foray, we noticed Cordyceps in the moss next to the creek, in wet deranged logs, and coming right out of the soil a few yards up from the creek. We found them on 3 different host species, one confirmed Anisota senatoria - black pupa with spiky cremaster, my educated guess for another host would be Smerinthus cerisyi - smooth reddish brown pupae, this species has been found in the same ecosystems we find Cordyceps, and it's part of the Family Sphingidae that has a high number of confirmed Cprdyceps militaris hosts. Other potential Pennsylvanian host species Phoberia atomaris, Chytolita morbidalis. We commonly find them on pupa, although this year we found 2 specimens on larval hosts.
