Re: Its a fungus, but is it candida?

Hi Everybody. I am a mycology graduate student and I randomly found this site while I was searching for information on an organism that I have been investigating (not as part of my thesis, but out of interest in small fungi). The images that have been posted look very similar if not identical to some of the organisms I have actually looked at just a few hours ago. I thought the connection to insects was interesting because where I find similar blue and red filaments are on conifer needles which are usually inhabited by the usual plant associates like mites and aphids.

I plucked an aphid with white filaments from a pine needle with similar crust/yeast-like patches and squashed it under a microscope coverslip and it was infested with filaments. I am not sure if the fungus infested aphids and mites are related to the multi colored filaments but I always find them together on the same needles.

I do not recognize the filaments as fungal and I have suspected them to be an actinomycete or something similar. Tweet