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Cordyceps Gunni is a species of fungus in the family Cordycipitaceae, and is of the genus Cordyceps. It was originally found and recorded by Gunn in Tasmania and named as Sphaeria gunnii Berkely and later moved into the Cordyceps genus and renamed Cordyceps gunnii Berk. This fungus, and its sisters in the genus are known for growing out of insect bodies. C. gunnii can be found poking out of caterpillar burrows, attached to a caterpillar's head.

Macroscopic Features
This fungus is a perithecial ascomycete. It forms a stroma whose stipe is white-gray colored, between 36.6 and 52.3 mm long and 4.8 to 8.6 mm wide. The ascogenous piece of the stromata is gray colored and 18.5 -19.3 mm long and 4 – 9.4 mm wide (Li et al., 1999). C. gunnii can be distinguished from C. sinensis, a very similar species, by having a stouter stroma than C. sinensis’ slender and cylindrical stoma (Liu et al. 2011).

Microscopic Features
The fungus’ perithecia are embedded into the stroma with papillate openings on surface. Asci are cylindrical with 8 ascospores. The Ascospores are filiform, hyaline, multiseptated, breaking into cylindrical and short, 1-celled secondary ascospores. (Li et al., 1999)

Ecology
This fungus will be found growing out of Lepidopteran larva’s heads. One known host is the larvae of Phassus excresens (Li et al). The larva will burrow underground when affected by this fungus, who will grow from the head of the caterpillar up out of the underground burrow and expose itself to the air where it can release spores.

Geographical Distribution
Anhui, Guangdong, Guizhou, Henan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces of China as well as Australia. (Wen et al. 2017, Liu et al. 2011)

Cultural
This species and other Cordyceps species have been used for a long time as traditional Chinese medicines (Zhu et al). The current price of 1 Kilogram of this mushroom is about $2000, each year roughly ten tons are harvested (Wen et al).

Chemicals and Secondary Metabolites
Cordyceps has been shown to have anti-tumor properties and anti-oxidant properties(Zhu et al. 2013, Zhu et al. 2011). These make it potentially valuable as an additive into health foods and potentially as a cancer treatment. C. gunnii mycelia has also been found to contain cordycepin, cordycepic acid, polysaccharides and anti-ultraviolet radiation constituents (Zhu et al. 2016).