Coccidioides

Coccidioides is a genus of dimorphic fungi in the family Onygenaceae whose member species cause coccidioidomycosis, also known as San Joaquin Valley fever, an infectious fungal disease largely confined to the Western Hemisphere and endemic in the southwestern United States. The disease is acquired through respiratory inhalation of spores from the fungus's natural soil habitat, and its two causative species, Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii, are indistinguishable in laboratory testing and are commonly referred to together simply as Coccidioides.