Caterpillar fungus, a tonic that many middle-level families have been longing for, and we have a kind of yearning for it like Tang Sanzang for Mahayana Buddhism. Most people only know that caterpillar fungus is a very nutritious and healthy thing, but do you know how caterpillar fungus is produced?

Caterpillar fungus is mainly distributed in the high-altitude areas of Qinghai Province, Tibet Autonomous Region, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Gansu, with an altitude of 4000 meters. Experts divide them according to the origin into Qinghai grass, Tibetan grass, Sichuan grass, Yunnan grass, etc. There are also those produced in Qinghai and Tibet Autonomous Regions, known as Tibetan caterpillar fungus. Generally speaking, the quality of caterpillar fungus produced in Qinghai and Tibet is better than that of other areas, and it is very popular in the market, and the price is also higher.

How is caterpillar fungus produced?

Caterpillar fungus is also known as Cordyceps sinensis or winter caterpillar, which is the one-carbon monooxygenase of the stroma and the remains of the larvae寄生 on the bat moth larvae. It belongs to the order Clavicipitales, family Clavicipitaceae, and genus Cordyceps. To put it simply, caterpillar fungus is a caterpillar in winter and a grass in summer.

Why is it so wonderful? Originally, caterpillar fungus is an animal called bat moth, which lays eggs underground and allows them to hatch into larvae that grow like silkworms. In addition, there is a kind of spore that will seep into the ground through water, specializing in寄生 in the larvae of the bat moth and absorbing the nutrients of the larvae body, and quickly breeding, known as the winter caterpillar summer grass fungus. As the fungus grows slowly, the larvae also grow slowly and come out of the ground.

Until the fungus breeds to fill the caterpillar body, the larvae will die, which is just winter, that is to say, the so-called winter caterpillar. When the temperature rises, the mycelium will gradually sprout from the head of the winter caterpillar, grow out like grass-like bacterial stroma, called summer grass. The head of the bacterial stroma contains asci, and the asci contain spores. When the asci mature, the spores will be released, and they will find the larvae of the bat moth as hosts again, which is the life cycle of caterpillar fungus.

The direction of caterpillar fungus

In recent years, Taiwan has already begun to develop the technology of cultivating caterpillar fungus and has also become one of the raw materials for health food. Because of the calm efficacy of caterpillar fungus, it is not easy to cause side effects, so it can change the physical quality in an imperceptible way. However, caterpillar fungus is not easy to collect, so the price naturally continues to rise. If we can use the method of manual planting, make use of mycelium to deeply ferment and shape, and produce a large number of products to control costs, it should be a blessing for the whole people!

Above, we have given a detailed introduction to how this unique caterpillar fungus is produced, and everyone who has seen it must be curious, why does it look so much like a small insect? And after understanding, will you feel that nature is really wonderful, and that the fusion of fungi and the larvae of spiders can produce this beneficial caterpillar fungus for humans.