ISOLATION AND CULTIVATION OF SPORE-FORMING FILAMENTOUS BACTERIA FROM PORCELLIO SCABER

An endospore-forming rod-shaped filamentous bacterium was taken from b oiled intestines of common sow bugs (Porcellio scaber, isopod crustace ans). The bacteria were grown on peptone - yeast extract medium. As ma ny as 180 cells per filament were counted in culture; filament length was a function of time after germination and oxic conditions. Cultures continued to grow filamentously after 10 successive transfers. The de velopment of spores was inhibited by strict anaerobiosis for 3 months. Spore-forming filaments over 100 mu m long in fresh intestinal materi al were observed only in guts taken from sow bugs cultivated in darkne ss. Phenotypic tests presented here show this isolate to be a member o f the genus Bacillus, most closely resembling B. cereus.