THE ASPERGILLUS CANDIDUS GROUP 213 



heads, and in all strains of Aspergillus candidus there are more or less abun- 

 dant small heads which bear few and loosely arranged sterigmata in a 

 manner strongly suggestive of typical conidial structures of A. niveus. 

 Although it is our belief that these similarities in structure do not of 

 necessity reflect close relationship between A. candidus and A. niveus, we 

 do feel that there is need for additional study of strains which appear to be 

 more or less transitional between the two groups. 



Occurrence and Economic Importance 



Members of the Aspergillus candidus group are very widely distributed 

 in nature and occur with reasonable frequency upon vegtation in the later 

 stages of decay. They are especially common upon moldy grains and 

 are obviously able to grow in the presence of a very limited amount of 

 moisture. 



The biochemical and physiological activities of these form have not been 

 studied extensively. A. okazakii was employed by Okazaki (1907 and 

 1914) for the production of a proteolytic enzyme preparation, "digestin," 

 and is the basis of a Japanese patent, No. 11461, covering this process. 

 Recently Timonin (1942) has employed a strain reported as belonging to 

 the A. candidus group for the production of citrinin. Upon examination, 

 however, this strain is found more nearly to represent A. niveus than A. 

 candidus in the sense it is considered here. 



