An unusual niche for an opportunistic fungus

ABSTRACT

An acrylic on canbas painting from the collection of the Institute of Puerto Rico Culture was found to be stained with light brown spots. Under ultraviolet light it was evident that these spots covered the entire painting. Scotch tape samples from different areas of th painting were tacken. In almost all of these samples, septated hyphae were observed to surround the canvas fibers and in most of them, spiny or rough-surfaced conidia were also observed. A sample from the canvas which was incubated over a Sabourand agar plate yelded a fungus very similar to the one observed in the tape samples after subculturing in potato dextrose agar. Slid culture characteristics provided evidence that this fungus was a species of Scopulariipsis. This fungus has been implicated in human disease and in this case, it was the cause of the deterioratation of the paiting