Figure 3a: Mucor amphibiorum growing on Saubaurad's agar as a typical filamentous fungus. M. amphibiorum is a dimorphic fungus being yeast like (spherical bodies) in the host and filamentous in the environment. Sporangiospores, the stage infective to amphibians, form on aerial structures produced by the mycelium.

View from on top

View from underneath

Figure 3b: Stylised M. amphibiorum life cycle showing dimorphic morphology. Only sphaerules occur in the amphibian host and hyphae in the external environment.

Figure 3c: Drawings of reproductive stages of M. amphibiorum (Schipper 1978). The sporangiospores are infective orally to amphibians. Note the zygospores formed by the mating of positive and negative mating types (see Fig. 3d).

Figure 3d: Mucor amphibiorum has positive and negative mating types. When the mycelium of a positive mating type grows to meet the mycelium of a negative mating type, they form reproductive bodies called zygospores. In this image the zygospores are seen as a brown line where the two types have met.

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