ADDITIONAL RECORDS: From debris under tree fern collected in the Waitakere Range, New Zealand, March 1989.

The conidiophores of this species (Figs. 7, 11) are relatively tall, measuring up to 200 µm tall and 2.8-3.6 µm wide. They are simple or sparingly branched, with most branches originating near the base. The phialides are long and slender, more or less cylindrical for most of their length, and taper in the upper third to a very narrow, often reflexed tip. They are 24-40 µm long by 2.5-3.5 µm wide. Occasionally the basal portion of the phialide is slightly inflated. In age, phialides proliferate at the apex to form polyphialides (Fig. 10). Aphanophialides are more or less cylindrical or slightly wider at the base and taper gradually towards the apex. They are up to 17 µm long, 1.0-1.5 µm at their widest point, and taper to a very narrow apex that may be only 0.5 µm across. Aphanophialides can also proliferate in age to produce an elongate rachis-like apex. They grow at right angles to the main conidiophores axis, but longer aphanophialides tend to be reflexed upwards as for the phialides. Conidia are elongate and more or less tooth-like (Figs. 8, 12); they are 8.4-10.8 µm long by 2.8-3.6 µm at the rounded apex. There is a slight indentation below the apex from which the conidia taper slightly to a narrow, rounded base. The conidia are often slightly bent in the lower half. Each conidium contains a large, solitary oil droplet about 1.5-1.8 µm across near the apex. Often there are one or two smaller, less refractive oil droplets closely associated with the primary droplet. In feeding studies, it was found that conidia lodged between the mouth and the mastax. They germinated from the apex to produce an elongate, filiform, germ tube that penetrated into the body tissues where it produced branching infection hyphae of turbinate cells (Fig. 9). The narrow germ tube was often much longer than observed in the other species of Rotiferophthora and was frequently many times the length of the conidium itself. The reason for such a long germ tube was not established.
When this species was first recovered in New Zealand, aleuriospores were recorded as present but were not measured. Later, when this fungus was studied in detail in Canada, aleuriospores failed to develop under the culture conditions we were using and therefore no measurements are available for this spore state.

HABITAT: Parasitic in bdelloid rotifers.

Conidiophora usque 200 µm longa x 2.8-3.6 µm lata, exigue ramosa; phialides longae et tenues, 24-40 µm longae x 2.5-3.5 µm latae, attenuatae usque ad minorem quam 1 µm; aphanophialides usque 17 µm longae x 1.0-1.5 µm latae rectae vel undatae, attenuatae usque ad minorem quam 1 µm latae in apice; conidia (7.5)8.4-10.8 µm longa x 2.8-3.5 µm lata, elongata, rotundata in apice, attenuata usque ad partem basilarem angustam et rotundatam, conidia maiora aliquando usque ad 15.5 µm longa x 3.8-4.5 µm lata. Aleuriosporae rarae.

TYPE: Slides in herbarium (OAC 10852) isolated from organic debris beneath tree fern, Mt. Egmont National Park, New Zealand, 18 December 1988.