A New Species of Microascus with a Scopulariopsis Stage

Abstract

During the fall of 1931, Doctor D. C. Smith, Professor of Dermatology and Syphology at the University of Virginia, gave me some dermatophyte cultures growing on Sabauraud's media. He had obtained a fungus in December, 1931, from an infection showing eruptions involving the hands and forearm and it was from the culture of this fungus that I found what I believe to be a new species of Scopulariopsis. On Sabauraud's media the surface growth of this new species was smooth with a whitish growth becoming grayish mealy with the formation of conidia and then turning black with the formation of the ascocarps. The colonies were restricted in extent and became wrinkled and raised above the surface of the agar. One could not consider this a surface growth as a number of the hyphae penetrated one fourth of an inch into the agar. There was very little or no growth on dextrose-tartaric acid media. In my study of dermatophytes, I have found that those within my experience grow better in Knop's solution in a sterile moist chamber than on agar media. Consequently, the study of all stages of the above fungus except the cross section of the perithecial stage, was made from culture grown on Sabauraud's media. The perithecia develop abundantly, however, in Knop's solution.