THE ASPERGILLUS WENTI1 GROUP 247 



centimeters (fig. 67 C), but remain inconspicuous in other strains (fig. 67 B) ; 

 with developing heads at first white through yellow shades to olive-brown, 

 medal bronze or snuff brown (Ridgway, Pis. IV, XVI, XXX, column 19, 

 and XXIX, column 15 K.), or, according to Wehmer, coffee brown to 

 chocolate brown ; reverse becoming reddish-brown in old cultures. Conidial 

 heads large, globose, generally remaining radiate in age (fig. 67 D), ranging 

 up to 500/x in diameter, changing from yellow shades to brown. Conidio- 

 phores up to several millimeters in height by 10 to 25m in diameter, with 

 walls colorless up to 4m in thickness, studded with droplets in growing 

 colonies and often appearing slightly roughened when examined dry, 

 but uniformly smooth in fluid mounts. Vesicles globose or nearly so 

 (fig. 67 E), varying up to 80m in diameter, fertile over the entire surface. 

 Sterigmata usually in two series, primaries 10 to 20m by 3 to 5m, occasionally 

 much larger, secondaries 6 to 8m by 3/jl. Conidia borne in long chains, 

 more or less elliptical, ranging from 3.5 to 6m in long axis, but mostly 4 

 to 5m, double wall clearly evident, ranging from almost smooth to marked 

 by ridges sometimes suggestive of A. niger, again more closely resembling 

 the A. flavus series. No perithecia reported. Sclerotia often encountered 

 (fig. 67 F), dark brown to black, ovate with long axis vertical. 



Culture description based upon strain NRRL No. 375 (Thorn No. 116) 

 obtained in 1909 from the Centraalbureau as Wehmer's original organism, 

 as well as numerous isolations from soils and other materials collected by 

 the authors in the United States, and other strains contributed by in- 

 vestigators from all over the world. 



Numerous strains with the general aspect of Wehmer's species have been 

 seen from Java, China, South America, Japan, the Straits Settlements, 

 British Guiana, and Brazil. In our experience it has been isolated from 

 cottonseed cake, from olives, from soil, and from numerous other sources. 

 It is to be regarded as very widely distributed and to be common on many 

 types of decaying vegetable products. 



The variations in colony aspect in different strains run from an extreme 

 of mycelial growth filling the test tube that is characteristic of cultures 

 such as the Wehmer organism, to colonies forming a crowded surface 

 growth of conidiophores only and distinguishable from .4. tamarii only by 

 a lack of greenish color in the early fruiting period and in the characteristic 

 smooth conidiophores and finely roughened conidia. 



Aspergillus archaeoflavus Blochwitz (Ann. Mycol. 31(1/2) : 73-83. 1933) represents 

 a non-floccose form which is hardly separable from A. wentii. In our examination 

 of the type strain (XRRL No. 382: Thorn Xo. 5346), received in 1933 from Baarn, 

 measurements were somewhat less than those cited by the author. The absence of 

 conidial markings, to which Blochwitz called attention, would not bar it from A. 

 wentii since in some strains conidia are almost entirely smooth, in others finely rough- 

 ened, while in still others they are conspicuously echinulate. 



