Sample was stalked with a glossy cap, approximately 7 cm from base to cap. The substrate, on or from which sample was growing, was not recovered. The stalk was light-yellow and semi-wrinkled with corrugations running vertically. The cap was globular, approximately 1 cm in diameter, and harder than the stalk with light-to-dark brown coloration and darkened papules in a repeating grid-like motif. Cross sectioning of the cap revealed that the cap tissue was superficial, and that the outer veneer was most likely the fertile stromal tissue. Cross sectioning of the stem revealed a consistent color and texture throughout. Microscopy of the cap revealed elongate thin fibrous structures (perithecia) emerging from the darkened papules like thin thread-like ascospores.
BLAST sequence analysis using a corrected sequence of 615 base pairs returned a list of potential ID sequences with high-fidelity and score. The list was dominated by those of the Cordyceps variety, suggesting a high-level of conservation within the sequence. At the top of the list was Cordyceps inegoensis genes for 18S rRNA, 5.8S rRNA, 28S rRNA, partial and complete sequences, with a score of 1078 bits and 97% fidelity (16 mismatches—either gaps or base-pair inconstancy). In a limited journal and online resource search, no morphological descriptions or pictures of C. inegoensis could be found. Further research into the dirverse Cordyceps produced a plethora of images bearing resemblance to the sample collected, most notably C. canadensis and C. capitatas. A distance tree of the results displaying fast minimum evolution placed the C. capitas 28 S ribosomal subunit gene closest to the sample. A search for C. canadensis returned no listed sequence. The results for the Cordyceps capitata genes for 18S rRNA, 5.8S rRNA, 28S rRNA, partial and complete sequences gave a score of 1027 bits and 96% fidelity—compared to the 28s rRNA only, which gave a score of 878 bits, and a 99% fidelity.
The region of homology between the sample and the sequence for the 28s rRNA of C. capitatas was 454 bp in length, and when the sample sequence was truncated to only include this region, the 28s rRNA of C. capitatas was the top result, the C. inegoensis rRNA ranking 6 spots below, with a lowered score of 809. The results suggest that the initial higher score of the C inegoensis was due to a large sequence to score against the sample sequence than the C. capitatas 28s sequence—this is further supported by the fact that the C. inegoensis sample sequence contained the 28s, 5.8s and 28s rRNA and therefore the ITS regions. While both possess considerable regions of homology, fidelity between C. capitatas and the sample were higher, which suggests a stronger phyleogenetic relationship, as supported by the distance tree. This suggests to me, that if the sample is NOT C. capitatas, it is closer related to C. capitatas than C. inegoensis.