THE ASPERGILLUS TAMARII GROUP 257 



A. spadix Amons, in Archief voor de Suikerindustrie in Nederlandsch-Indie Jaarg. 

 29, Deel 1, pp. 12-14. Jan.-June 1921. From the description this is a synonym of 

 A. tamarii Kita. Colonies described as yellow-brown to deep brown, growing well 

 one ommon laboratory media, without aerial mycelium; in reverse colorless; rice- 

 colored to light violet at first, then light fuscous brown; conidiophores up to 2 to 3 

 mm. by 8 to 9/x with walls about 0.9m thick and pitted or rough; vesicles globose, up 

 to 50m in diameter, or almost clavate in small heads; conidia 5.5 to 7.2m, rough. 



Culture: Amons. Not studied by us. 



A. erythrocephalus B. and C, in Jour. Linn. Soc. (London), Bot. 10: 362. 1869. 

 (See Fungi Cubensis Wrightiana, 1868; Type No. 642 in Curtis Herbarium de- 

 posited in the Cryptogamic Herbarium of Harvard University, bears Wright's No. 

 764. Part of the original material was removed by Dr. Farlow and given to Thorn 

 for study.) 



Microscopic examination of this type specimen gives measurements as follows: 

 conidiophores 45 to 70m in diameter, up to 2 mm. in length, with walls very heavy 5 to 

 12m thick, varying from 5 to 6m in the broader part to 10 to 12m at the narrower base, 

 pitted or roughened; vesicles up to 100m in diameter, nearly globose, fertile all over; 

 head washed free from spores about 150m in diameter; sterigmata in two series, pri- 

 mary 8 to 10m in length, secondary 8 to 9m in length ; conidia commonly 8 by 6m, ranging 

 up to 8 to 12m by 5 to 9m, finely pitted or roughened with rather thin walls. Colors in 

 the material are questionable on account of the age of the collection. 



Cultures: None. Type material only known. Placed between the A. tamarii and 

 A.flavus groups. The amended description is offered due to the existence of a type 

 specimen with very conspicuous characters under a name only very briefly described 

 in 1869. When grown upon natural substrata such as grains, et cetera, conidiophores 

 and heads of A. tamarii become very much larger than those ordinarily produced in 

 culture media. This might account for this specimen which bears the name A. 

 erythrocephalus B. and C. 



Occurrence and Economic Importance 



Of the species included in this group of brown-spored Aspergilli, only 

 A. tamarii is in any sense widely distributed or common in nature. Asper- 

 gillus lutescens is known only as the type culture and as a second isolation 

 made in Washington, D. C, many years later. Aspergillus terricola has 

 not been positively identified since its description, although the form with 

 smaller heads and less coarsely roughened spores designated A. terricola 

 var. americana by Marchal is occasionally encountered. Aspergillus 

 tamarii is, however, a cosmopolitan mold upon vegetable material under- 

 going slow decomposition and can be isolated from almost all soils examined. 

 Like A. niger and A.flavus, it is more frequently recovered from warm and 

 semi-tropical soils than from cool, temperate soils, although it occurs in 

 the latter. The species commonly appears with A. flavus and A. oryzae 

 as a constituent part of the "koji" used in the fermentation industries of 

 the Orient. Certain strains apparently produce appreciable amounts of 

 diastatic and proteolytic enzyme, while other strains are known to produce 



