Mycal. Res. 98 (8): 869-873 (1994) Printed in Great Britain 869 Aspergillus implicatus, a new species isolated from Ivory Coast forest soil ORIANA MAGGI AND ANNA MARIA PERSIAN I Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Universita degli Studi di Roma ' La SapienUl', Largo Cristina di Svezia 24, 00165 Roma, Italy Aspergillus implicatus sp. nov. is described from tropical forest soil in Tai National Park (Ivory Coast). The species shows an affinity with species of Sedion Candidi and is characterized by the peculiar presence of parallel sterile hyphae surrounding the conidiophore. During researches on tropical forest soils, within the Tai Project, MAB Programme No. I, an interesting Aspergillus species was repeatedly isolated. It was reported in previous works as Aspergillus sp. no. 2 (Rambelli et al.. 1983, 1984; Maggi & Persiani, 1992) and it has been widely studied for its outstanding features. It is morphologically distinct from any known species of Aspergillus because of the presence of sterile corticating hyphae surrounding the conidiophore. These hyphae begin to branch at the base of vesicle to form a hyphal tangle around the mature conidial head. (c) 10 (d) 15 y .. / .: . .., 5 - (b) o 0 °G O (e) (a) 30 1 mm - Fig. 1. Aspergillus implicatus. a, conidiophore with corticating hyphae; b, conidia; c, diminutive head; d, foot cell bearing young conidiophore; e, habit