Part of the Environmental Sciences Commons

West Virginia (Figure 1; Gargas et al. 2009). The characteristic white fungus, which has been isolated from several bat species, has recently been identified as a new species of Geomyces, which has been named Geomyces destructans. Species in the Geomyces genus are psychrophilic (capable of grow-ing in cold climates) and the optimal growth parame-ters fungus seems to be temperatures between 5° and 10°C (Blehert et al. 2009) and humidity levels>90%. Therefore, caves and other bat hibernacula may serve as excellent reservoirs for year-round maintenance of the fungus. Although G. destructans has not been confirmed as the etiological agent of WNS (i.e., fulfilled Koch’s White-nose syndrome (WNS) was named for the characteristic white fungus that appears o