SUBCUTANEOUS PHEOHYPHOMYCOSIS CAUSED BY GENICULOSPORIUM SPECIES - A NEW FUNGAL PATHOGEN

A 70-year-old Japanese timberworker dealing with imported timber from the U.S.A. and Russia had an asymptomatic subcutaneous nodule with a s mall fistula on his left knee, Histopathological examination of the no dule revealed brownish hyphal elements in encapsulated pyogranuloma. T he fungus isolated from a discharge of the fistula and an excised spec imen of the lesion was identified as Geniculosporium sp., which repres ents a conidial state (anamorph) of several genera such as Anthostomel la, Biscogniauxia, Euepixylon, Leprieuria, Nemania, Phylacia and Rosel linia in the Xylariaceae. Whereas this dematiaceous hyphomycete is com monly found on decaying wood and bark of various trees. to our knowled ge, this is the first case of a phaeomycotic cyst caused by fungi belo nging to the genus Geniculosporium.