ASPERGILLUS NIGER GROUP 231 



Saito's description. A purple-brown strain (Thorn No. 5362.7) collected 

 by Manns in Honduras showed slightly darker colors and slightly different 

 measurements. A strain received from Raistrick as coming from Blochwitz 

 through the Centraalbureau in Baarn labeled A. alropurpareus Zimmermann 

 resembled the two Blakeslee cultures quite closely. It certainly did not 

 comply with Zimmermann 's description (see p. 226). A. luchuensis var. 

 rubeolis Shih is probably closely related if not identical with .4. japonicus 

 Saito. 



Aspergillus violacco-fuscus Gasperini, in Atti. Soc. Toscana Sci. Nat. Pisa, 



Mem. 8, fasc. 2, p. 326. 1887. 



Colonies upon Czapek's solution agar, comparatively slow growing 

 (fig. 61 F), purplish-brown with a faint violet shade, passing to purple drab 

 in age, reverse colorless to dark purplish. Conidial heads purplish-brown, 

 globose, not crowded, 100 to 150m in diameter. Conidiophores mostly 

 less than 1 mm. in length but sometimes reaching 2 mm., 12 to 18m in di- 

 ameter. Vesicles globose, varying up to 60m in diameter. Sterigmata 

 generally in one series (fig. 62 D), 5 to 8m by 3m, occasionally in two series 

 with secondaries 2 to 4m long. Conidia elliptical, 3.5 to 5m by 5 to 6.5m, at 

 first hyaline, becoming violaceous, somewhat roughened. 



By description this is a variant member of the great group of black 

 Aspergilli characterized by short sterigmata and elliptical conic|ia. 



Gasperini's material has not been seen but three cultures have been 

 studied which are believed to differ from his species only in having some- 

 what smaller conidia. The first of these was received in 1914, from Puerto 

 Rico (NRRL No. 360: Thorn No. 3522.30), while the others were subse- 

 quently obtained from Jamaica and from Professor Raistrick in England. 



In cultivating black Aspergilli an occasional strain produces heads at 

 first showing a single series of sterigmata; then, as the colony becomes 

 older, heads with both primary and secondary sterigmata dominate the 

 culture. Upon careful examination many strains show both large heads 

 with sterigmata in two series and, on shorter conidiophores mixed among 

 the larger ones, small heads with simple sterigmata only or with both 

 types mixed. Colonies of this kind probably accounted for .4. nanus 

 Montagne, .4. subfuscus Johan-Olsen (Sopp.) and are known to account for 

 A. pyri English. 



Aspergillus nanus Montagne, in Syllog. Generum Specierumque Cryptogamarum, 

 p. 300, No. 112, Paris, 1856. Sacc. Syll. 4: 71. 1886. Species reported as a member 

 of the black group with a single series of sterigmata about 15m in length and spores 

 3m in diameter. This may have represented young fruiting structures of a typical 

 A. niger. 



Aspergillus subfuscus Johan-Olsen, in Meddelelser fra Xaturh. forening i Kris- 



