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KEYS TO SOME COMMON GENERA OF MOULDS

GROUP IV

1. Spores 1-celled 2


1. Spores with more than one cell 11







2. (1) Spores produced within a distinct fruiting body having a hyphal or cellular wall 3


2. Spores borne externally 6







3. (2) Fruiting bodies or spore mass brown or black 4


3. Fruiting bodies and spore mass colourless or brightly coloured 5







4. (3) Spores brown; fruiting bodies (pycnidia) lacking spines

Microsphaeropsis

Compare with Myrothecium (Group V)


4. Spores colourless or brightly coloured; fruiting bodies (pycnidia) with spines around the apical opening

Pyrenochaeta







5. (3) Fruiting bodies (cleistothecia) composed of hyphae; usually with an associated Penicillium (Group I) anamorph

Talaromyces

Compare with Gymnoascus (Group V) and Arachniotus (not treated here)


5. Fruiting bodies (cleistothecia) with a distinctly cellular wall; usually with an associated Aspergillus (Group I) anamorph

Eurotium

Compare with Neosartorya and Emericella (neither treated here). Eupenicillium species (also not treated here) are similar moulds with Penicillium anamorphs.







6. (2) Spores distinctly dark brown or black 7


6. Spores colourless or quite pale 8







7. (6) Spores usually spherical and roughened, with two hyphal connections; hyphae mostly not septate

Zygospores of Mucorales

Usually associated with Absidia, Mucor, Rhizopus, Zygorhynchus (similar to Mucor), etc. Read about Zygosporangia for a more detailed discussion of how these structures are formed.


7. Spores discoid or egg-shaped, often with a colourless band, usually smooth, with only one connection to the conidiophore; hyphae septate

Arthrinium

Compare with Wardomyces and Nigrospora (both Group V)







8. (6) Spores in chains (sometimes interrupted by sterile cells) 9


8. Spores not in chains 10







9. (8) Spore chains often characterized by an alternating series of spores and narrow sterile cells (bead-like in appearance); filaments never dark

Geomyces

Compare with Chrysosporium (Group II)


9. Spore chains composed of uniformly cylindrical spores, never with alternating sterile cells; conidiophores often dark

Oidiodendron







10. (8) Spores borne from the apex of flask-shaped phialides with a flaring collar

Phialophora

Compare with Exophiala (Group III)


10. Spores borne at the tips of somewhat jagged conidiophores

Sporothrix







11. (1) Spores borne in fruiting bodies (pycnidia), 2-celled

Diplodia


11. Spores borne externally, with more than two cells

Pithomyces

Compare with Trichocladium (Group V)

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