162 



MEDICAL MYCOLOGY 



In Zymonema capsnlatum (Fig. 32) causing meningitis in man, the hyphae 

 are generally nninncleate, and easily break up into oidia, being* usually found 

 as single cells in the spinal fluid and in tissue. When first isolated and on 

 acid media this species has coarse isodiametric cells suggesting Madurella. 

 Later, and on neutral protein media, hyphae develop readily. Conidia are pro- 

 duced on these hyphae. The hyphae develop by an outgrowth of the oidia rather 

 than by the elongation of the latter. 



Copulation is usually heterogamous, with less differentiation than in Endo- 

 myces and usually without coiling of the antheridium. The asci are terminal 



Pig 30. — Eremascus fertilis. Development of asci (X500). (After GulUiermond 1909.) 



Fig. 31- — Eremascus alhus. 1-5, S, 9, stages of copulation and development of asci; 6, young 

 ascus with immature ascospores ; ~, mature ascus with ascospores. (After Eidam 1883.) 



on filaments arising from the ascogonium and usually produce 8 ascospores. In 

 Zymonema dennatitidis (Fig. 33) conditions are essentially similar. These spe- 

 cies have retained traces of the ascogenous hypha of the Spermophthoraceae, and 

 have developed an ascogonium by the copulation of undififerentiated gametangia, 

 a structure characteristic of most higher Ascomycetes. These species are sug- 

 gestive of the Spermophthoraceae, where the ascogenous hyphae result from the 

 zygote, but in this family the gametangia fail to develop the gametes and whole 

 gametangia copulate, producing a large zygote. Usually only one nucleus mi- 

 grates and fuses with a nucleus in the other cell. The zygote nucleus divides, 



