Entomophthora is a fungal genus in the family Entomophthoraceae. Species in this genus are parasitic on flies and other two-winged insects. The genus was circumscribed by German physician Johann Baptist Georg Wolfgang Fresenius (1808–1866) in 1856.

This fungus is parasitic and undergoes a number of stages within its life cycle, these include: infection, incubation, sporulation and mummification. Within each stage, this pathogen invades the host's body cells, utilising the insect's nutrients allowing it to take control over the brain just before the host's death.

Entomophthora reproduces asexually through both budding and spores. When in the host's body, the pathogen utilises budding as a form of growth. This is done through a fungus cell developing a bud (daughter cell) on the parent cell. The parent cell then replicates its DNA and provides the daughter cell with this DNA. The daughter cell is then able to detach itself from the parent cell resulting in multiplication of the fungus. Spores are another mechanism that is utilised as a method of reproduction; the spores act like seeds in that they will flourish when environmental conditions are appropriate and begin to grow hyphae – root like filaments. These hyphae then develop into the body of the fungus where the spores can be created once again and released into the environment to ensure further reproduction occurs again.

Similarly, spores are utilised as a method of transmission of this parasitic disease, when spores come in contact with the insect either through consumption or direct contact, the pathogen is able to infect the insect resulting in the beginning on the life cycle. The insect however has immune responses that fight against these parasites in order to defend themselves from infection. Hemocytes are the cells within the immune response that are able to detect the entry of a pathogen and initiate the immune response to kill the foreign particles within the insect.

...