TRICHOMYCETES

class of fungi (division Mycota) with a vegetative body (thallus) consisting of single or branched filaments (hyphae). The class was earlier subsumed under the group Phycomycetes (q.v.). Trichomycetes occur in the gut or on the cuticle (outer covering) of crabs, beach fleas, boring gribble, and other arthropods. Asexual reproduction occurs by the formation of saclike fruiting bodies (sporangia), the entire cytoplasmic contents of which divide into spores (sporagiospores). Sexual reproduction has not been confirmed.