582 A MANUAL OF THE PENICILLIA 



metulae and sterigmata usually slightly longer and thinner than on Czapek ; 

 perithecia produced abundantly in all typical cultures, usually forming a 

 continuous single layer near the colony margin and more or less piled in 

 central areas, varying greatly in dimensions in different strains or even 

 in the same strain, commonly 200 to 500/i in diameter, soft at all stages of 

 development, with "walls" consisting of thin loose networks of pigmented 

 vegetative hyphae, and surrounded by loose mantles of coarse, encrusted, 

 and often twisted, radiating hyphae up to 200m or more in length (fig. 15D); 

 asci produced abundantly throughout the perithecium, borne in short 

 chains, oval to almost globose at maturity, about 8 to lO/x in diameter, 

 8-spored; ascospores elliptical, conspicuously echinulate over the entire 

 surface (fig. USD), usually 4.0 to 4.5m by 3.0 to 3.5m, in some strains slightly 

 longer, up to 5.0 or 5.2m in long axis, slightly yellow. 



Colonies on cornmeal agar spreading broadly, up to 7 cm. in 10 to 12 

 days, thin, typically consisting of a layer of scattered perithecia bright 

 lemon yellow in color and few conidial heads not affecting the colony ap- 

 pearance; perithecia as described on malt. 



Initials of perithecia (fig. 144B) are easily recognized on cornmeal agar 

 and typically consist of long, thick, club-shaped hyphae (ascogonia) 100m 

 or more in length by 4.0 to 5.0m in diameter (in contrast to vegetative 

 hyphae about 2.0m in diameter) around which thinner hyphae (antheridia?) 

 characteristically coil. 



Species description centered upon NRRL 1019 from K. D. Butler, Uni- 

 versity of Arizona, Tucson; NRRL 2100 isolated from soil from Sao Paulo, 

 Brazil, in December 1945; and by numerous other strains that have been 

 isolated from soils from Brazil, India, Nicaragua, Sweden, Egypt, and 

 various parts of the United States. Typical strains have also been en- 

 countered among the molds isolated from exposed tentage in New Guinea 

 and Panama. Two strains received in June 1946 from the Centraalbureau 

 as Penicillium luteum Zukal, namely: NRRL 2098 from Neill in New Zea- 

 land (1938) and NRRL 2099 isolated at Baarn in 1936, are entirely typical 

 of the species P. vermicidatum. 



A total of 21 strains belonging to this species has been examined in the 

 current study. Of these, 14 are regarded as entirely typical of the species 

 and develop abundant characteristic perithecia and ascospores. Five pro- 

 duce conidial structures generally conforming with the above description 

 and still show the characteristic club-shaped perithecial initials, but fail 

 to produce perithecia upon any culture medium investigated. 



One strain, NRRL 2101, from Professor Weston as an isolate from ex- 

 posed cotton fabric in Panama, differs from typical strains by producing 

 ascospores about 6.0 to 6.5m by 2.0 to 4.5m, bearing long, thin, colorless 

 spines up to 1.0m in length, and colonies with reverse in deep red to brown 



