ABSTRACT
Department of Plant Biology and Pathology, Cook College-Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
25.1 OVERVIEW OF CLAVICIPITACEAE
Clavicipitaceae is a fungal family in the order Hypocreales (Ascomycota). It is largely composed of plant biotrophs and pathogens of arthropods and
Elaphomyces
(truffles). Clavicipitalean fungi have many unseen and often unstudied impacts in plant and herbivore communities. They are important in natural biological control of herbivores of plants by deterring herbivore feeding on plants (Clay, 1988) and have been shown to defend plants from fungal diseases and abiotic stresses (White et al., 2002). The entomopathogenic clavicipitaleans play important functions in regulating arthropod populations in their natural environment. The diseases caused by these arthropod pathogens can be of epidemic proportions (Evans and Samson, 1982
;
Hywel-Jones, 1997
)
.
