Species of Absidia with ovoid sporangiospores. II.

Abstract

The only species of the genus Absidia found in animals and man belong to A. ramosa and A. corymbifera. We have studied more than 150 isolates belonging to these two species. Although closely related, the two are distinguishable by the regularly elliptical to ovoid spores of A. namosa and the irregularly ovoid to globose spores of A. corymbifera. A large number of synonyms exist for both species. Zygospores are illustrated for the first time for both heterothallic species and are produced when appropriate strains are mated on media, such as yeast extract agar, at an optimum temperature of 31° C. Zygospores are formed in a diffuse fashion throughout the aerial mycelium when two appropriate colonies meet and are produced between two nearly parallel suspensors devoid of outgrowths. The zygospores are globose to slightly compressed and encircled by one or more ridges with the equatorial one most conspicuous. Absidia orgyptiacum, A. capillata, A. dubia, A. robusta, A. tuneta, Lichtheimia sartoryi, Mycocladus hy...