Fungi --> Ascomycota --> Dothideomycetes
Fungi --> Ascomycota --> Dothideomycetes
Single host, psychrophilic fungus that directly transmits among bats
When bats are in torpor in the winter, P. destructans colonizes tissue to produce external mycelial growths that give bats "white-nose syndrome." It grows and sporulates asexually via conidiation and, outside of a host, is psychrophilic (cold-loving) and can subsist off of decaying matter.
http://sites.gsu.edu/crowlab/pseudogymnoascus-destructans/
Bats can spread P. destructans to their susceptible young. Since they dwell in caves, which often have cold, wet walls coated in detritus, the fungus can also be deposited there, where it may feed off decaying matter and lie in wait for another susceptible host to pick it up. The parasitic fungus also takes advantage of slowed metabolic activity and reduced immune function when bats go into a state of torpor, which is similar to hibernation, to colonize tissue.
P. destructans has spread across much of Europe, eastern North America, throughout Russia, and has been found in five Asian countries.