I. SYNONYMS: zygomycetes, conjugating fungi, entomophthoroid fungi

II. NUMBER: >300 species.

III. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS:

• A. ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION:
  • Conidia (text with tooltip) Asexual reproductive spores formed on a conidiophore. , often forming secondary conidia. Individual conidia forcibly-ejected

• B. SEXUAL REPRODUCTION:
  • Two morphologically similar gametangia fuse to produce a warty, thick zygospore. Meiosis within zygospore (text with tooltip) Sexual spores produced by fusion of gametangia. .

• C. VEGETATIVE HYPHAE:
  • Haplophase (text with tooltip) Portion of life cycle during which the organism is haploid. ; no dikaryophase (text with tooltip) Portion of life cycle during which cells are dikaryotic. except in fused gametangia; aseptate (text with tooltip) Lacking septa (partitions within the hyphae). or septate.

• D. CELL WALLS: Chitin and chitosan.

• E. ECOLOGY: Free-living to parasitic. Free-living forms mainly terrestrial saprobes. Parasites mainly of arthropods (insects and mites), but also of nematodes, desmids, fern gametophytes, and vertebrates.