CONSIDERATIONS INFLUENCING CLASSIFICATION 13 



has shown that microorganisms that belong in this order sometimes exist in 

 water rather than as pathogens affecting animals or plants or in soil. These 

 water-inhabiting, saprophytic types of Actinomycetes have developed sporangia 

 in which motile or non-motile spores may develop. In a way they are analogous 

 to the so-called water molds. The structure of the vegetative cells and mycelia 

 of these water-inhabiting Actinomycetes is like that of the aerobic Actinomycetes. 



Order VII, Beggiatoales, has been organized by Dr. R. E. Buchanan, page 837, 

 to include a group of bacteria, primarily ocurring in trichomes, that are motile 

 but which lack flagella. In spite of this lack they have the power to glide, roll or 

 oscillate as do certain species of blue-green algae. While none of these bacterial 

 types develop photosynthetic pigments, they are frequently and apparently 

 quite properly regarded as colorless, saprophytic forms of blue-green algae. 

 Certain species oxidize sulfur compounds with the liberation of free sulfur gran- 

 ules. Some specialists prefer to transfer this group to Class I, Schizophyceae, as 

 colorless species of blue-green algae rather than to include them with Class II, 

 Sch.izomycetes. As bacteriologists have been primarily responsible for developing 

 our knowledge of the species in this order, they are retained here in Class II, 

 Schizomycetes. 



Our knowledge of Order VIII, Myxobacterales, the so-called slime bacteria, 

 was first developed by botanists rather than bacteriologists. These organisms 

 occur in leaf mold and on the dung of animals. Recently species causing diseases 

 of fish have been found. The cells of these species move with a flexuous motion 

 in a slime which normally grows up into fruiting bodies large enough to be visible 

 to the naked eye. 



The organisms placed in Order IX, Spirochaetales, have always been set off 

 by themselves though certain species are knoA\Ti that are so much like other 

 species of bacteria placed in the genus Spirillum in Order I, Pseudomonadales, 

 that they may be regarded as transitional forms. Sometimes, without sufficient 

 justification, these spirally twisted organisms have been placed among the 

 Protozoa. 



The tenth order of Class II, Schizomycetes, is the newly organized Order X, 

 Mycoplasmatales Freundt. Because a review of the nomenclature of the pleuro- 

 pneumonia-like organisms (Buchanan, Cowan and Wiken, Internat. Bull. Bact. 

 Nomen. and Taxon., d, 1955, 13-20) has shown that the first generic name applied 

 to these organisms that has a legitimate standing is M mycoplasma Nowak (Ann. 

 Inst. Past., 43, 1929, 1330-1352), this name has been adopted for use in the 

 classification of the pleuropneumonia-like organisms that has been prepared 

 by Freundt (Internat. Bull. Bact. Nomen. and Taxon., 6, 1955, 67-78). This 

 generic name has also been used by Edward (Internat. Bull. Bact. Nomen. and 

 Taxon., 5, 1955, 85-93). While other order names, such as Borrelomycetales 

 Turner (Jour. Path, and Bact., 41, 1935, 1-32), have been suggested, the generic 

 name Borrelomyces Turner on which the order name is founded has never come 

 into general use, and Borrelomyces is in fact an illegitimate homonym of Myco- 

 plasma Nowak. Acceptance of the order name Mycoplasmatales is in accordance 



