Two new species of Sporothrix and their relation to Blastobotrys nivea.

In the course of the investigations on fungi isolated from human skin by the second author, several strains were encountered of a fungus with sympodial conidium formation, which produce a litmus-like pigment. The same organism was recently isolated from air in the Netherlands; one of the aerial isolates, however, failed to produce any pigment. The species mentioned above resembled three strains of a fungus which was maintained in the CBS collection as Blastobotrys sp. However, the type of primary conidium formation and the shape of the conidiogenous cells are the same as in Sporothrix schenckii Hektoen et Perkins (1900). Sporothrix schenckii is the type species of the genus Sporothrix Hektoen et Perkins, which was validated and newly described by Nicot and Mariat (1973). Both species concerned were thought to be new species of the genus Sporothrix. Descriptions are based on colonies grown on 2 ~o malt agar at room temperature.