Microscopic: spores thread-like and multiseptate, smooth, colorless, breaking into one-celled segments averaging 8-10 x 1.5 microns, (Arora), spores colorless, filiform [thread-like], breaking into one-celled segments, 8-10 x 1.5 microns; asci 480 -720 x 4-6 microns, narrowly cylindric; perithecia 600-1020 x 192-300 microns, narrowly ovoid, entirely embedded except for the slightly projecting ostioles, extending upward and oblique to the surface of the head, (Mains(4))
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
Ophiocordyceps ravenelii (Berk. & M.A. Curtis) G.H. Sung, J.M. Sung, Hywel-Jones & Spatafora has been reported by Adolf and Oluna Ceska from BC on larva in Ammophila arenaria stands in sand dunes, but with spores of atypical size: segments (7)10-15 x 1.5-2.5 microns - the 3.5-4cm high head was a black-brown cylinder narrowing upwards; it also occurs in the San Juan Islands of Washington.
Habitat
scattered to gregarious on mummified, often buried ant carcasses, usually one per ant, usually around ant nests in the woods, (Arora)