ABSTRACT
The intraordinal and interordinal phylogenetic relationships of the order Entomophthorales are still unclear. The Entomophthorales includes, primarily, insect-killing fungi, although a few exhibit a certain pathogenic potential to infect animals and humans. The Entomophthoralean group traditionally belongs to the phylum Zygomycota, but recent phylogenetic reevaluations show that the Zygomycota are polyphyletic.1 The phylogenetic position of the Entomophthorales and the degree of phylogenetic relatedness to its putative connatural fungal groups are still unresolved. Recently, the Zygomycota have been divided into several subphyla and the Entomophthorales are included as a separate subphylum, the Entomopthoromycotina.2 In addition, the traditional family structure within the Entomophthorales has changed several times based on a multitude of phylogenetic analyses and algorithms applied to different loci. In
these analyses, the phylogenetic position of Basidiobolus is pivotal in resolving a natural classi–cation. Multigene genealogies place Basidiobolus either with the Chytridiomycota3 or the Entomophthorales.1 In contrast to the ambiguous phylogenetic position of Basidiobolus, Conidiobolus, and other Entomophthoralean genera consistently group within the Entomophthorales.
