The fungus
Tarichium was originally described in 1870 by German botanist Ferdinand Julius Cohn (1828-1898), when he discovered the fungus
Tarichium megaspermum within the infested larvae of the turnip moth (
Agrotis segetum ). The fungus turns the hosts skin turns black, coal-black pigment is found in the blood, later the caterpillar or larvae becomes wrinkled and brittle-like a mummy. Later after the fungus had killed the insect-host. Inside the host-body, the fungus left a finely granular mass consisting of large amounts of thick-walled spores, which were large and globular dark brown spores that have a wrinkled surface. Botanist I. Krassilstschik in Russia in 1886, also discovered the fungus within the larval body of the coleopterous sugar-beet curculio
Cleonus punctiventris. He labelled it
Tarichium uvella. Although it was later in 1889 by French zoologist
Giard revealed it to be a synonym of
Soroporella uvella. There were 32 alleged species (in 1970), assigned mainly on the basis of resting spore morphology. Many of these are not well known because their descriptions have appeared in publications which are difficult to obtain. Also none of the species have been cultured on artificial medium to study fully. In 2012, the genus
Tarichium was known for species known only from resting spores apparently represents a mix of species attributable to
Neozygitaceae (especially species pathogenic tomites) and Entomophthoraceae. It was suggested that DNA-based studies and morphological re-evaluations should be carried out to confirm if species could be recognized as synonyms of other species or transferred to other genera within the Entomophthoraceae and Neozygitaceae families. ==Species==