Chapter II 



CLASSIFICATION, GENERIC DIAGNOSIS, AND 



SYNONYMY 



Class: Ascomycetes 



Order: Plectascineae 



Family: Aspergillaceae 

 Genus: Aspergillus 



Class: Fungi Imperfecti 



Subclass: Hyphomycetes 

 Order: Mucedineae 



Family: Mucedinaceae 



Subfamily : Aspergilleae 

 Genus: Aspergillus 



The above classification follows Engler and Prantl. Changes in the 

 names of class, order, and family appear in various proposals without 

 essential differences in placement. G. W. Martin would replace the names 

 Plectascineae with Eurotiales, Aspergillaceae with Eurotiaceae, and Asper- 

 gillus with Eurotium in the plea that the first name applied to the ascosporic 

 form determines the generic usage. Since the group has too many common 

 characters to be split to advantage, and since the non-ascosporic forms 

 vastly outnumber the ascosporic, it is better to forget Eurotium along 

 with the technicality. In this arrangement, the name Aspergillus appears 

 in its proper place among the ascosporic fungi. It also appears among the 

 Hyphomycetes properly keyed to facilitate the identification of organisms 

 obviously related but which do not produce ascospores as far as known. 



GENERIC DIAGNOSIS 



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There is progressive need for broadening the application of the name 

 Aspergillus to include organisms whose structures, as determined in 

 culture by microscopic study, point to membership in specific natural 

 groups. There is need for analysis of the question whether the whole 

 group shall be retained as Aspergillus or further divided into more closely 

 related entities, such as Eurotium of Link, Aspergillopsis of Spegazzini, 

 Diplostephanusoi Langeron, Sterigmatocystis of Cramer, and perhaps others. 

 There are so many arguments for keeping them in a single group that the 

 characterization of the genus Aspergillus used by Thorn and Church in 



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