ABSTRACT: A new entomogenous fungus, Paecilomyces purpureus sp. nov. was isolated from larvae of Lepidoptera in Guiyang Forest Park, Guizhou, China. The new species is described and illustrated and its relationships to other allied species are briefly discussed. This fungus is characterized by having purple synnemata and small subglobose to fusiform conidia. Morphological characters and ITS-5.8S rDNA sequence comparisons strongly support the establishment of the fungus as a new species in the genus Paecilomyces.

KEYWORDS: mitosporic fungus, classification, molecular identification