Chapter XV 

 THE ASPERGILLUS TERREUS GROUP 



Outstanding Characters 



Heads columnar, in cinnamon, pale buff or light flesh colors. 

 Conidiophores smooth, colorless, rarely exceeding 250m in length. 

 Vesicles hemispherical, with upper half to two-thirds covered by sterig- 



mata. 

 Sterigmata in two series, generally crowded. 

 Conidia smooth, globose to slightly elliptical, small. 



Included here are members of a variable and cosmopolitan group of 

 Aspergilli especially common in soil. They differ markedly in color and in 

 colony appearance and to a lesser degree in the texture of their conidial 

 heads. The group may be separated as follows: 



Group Key 



I. Conidial heads in cinnamon or orange-brown shades, compact, uniform in di- 

 ameter throughout A . lerreus series 



A. Colonies velvety, conidiophores mostly in a dense stand arising from the 



substratum. 



1 . Conidial heads in dull cinnamon shades A . lerreus Thorn 



2. Conidial heads orange-brown near xanthine orange (Ridgway) 



A. lerreus var. boedijni (Bloch.) n. var. 



B. Colonies floccose, conidial heads arising from aerial hyphae. 



1. Mycelium colorless, heads light pinkish-cinnamon in color 



A . lerreus var. floccosus Shih 



2. Mycelium yellow, heads developing late, in cream or light tan shades 



.4. terreus var. aureus n. var. 



II. Conidial heads white or flesh colored, loose textured not strictly uniform in 

 diameter A . carneus series 



A. Colonies in light flesh colors, ranging from near white to vinaceous-fawn 



(Ridgway). Thick-walled hyphae suggestive of hiille cells are generally 

 present A. carneus (van Tieghem) Blochwitz 



B. Colonies persistently white or becoming dull ivory in age. Thick-walled 



cells often present A. niveus Bloch. 



Aspergillus terreus Thorn, in Turesson, Gote, Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift 



10: 5, 1916, without description; diagnosis Thorn and Church, 



in Amer. Jour. Bot. 5: 85-6. 1918. 



Synonym: A. galeritus Blochwitz, in Ann. Mycol. 27(3/4): 205. Taf. 

 III. 1929. 



Colonies upon Czapek's solution agar growing well at room temperature 

 and up to 37° C, spreading, plane or marked by shallow radial furrows, 



195 



