First, it makes phialides without distinct collarettes, giving it the characteristic of the genus Wangiella . Second, it produces annellides, giving it the key characteristic of the genus Exophiala . Third, it produces phialides having collarettes, giving it the characteristic of species of Phialophora . It also produces yeast forms that are suggestive of the black yeast genus Phaeococcomyces . It is because of all of these different forms that the organism has, at various times, been given so many different names.
Resolution comes by way of two deciding factors.
First, as none of the original material was preserved when the original description of the fungus was made, a neotype for this fungus was made so that it could be studied by future mycologists. The isolate that was selected to make this neotype originated from the original isolate that was studied when the name for the fungus was made. The neotype has phialides without distinct collarettes, as well as some other forms. The name Wangiella was based upon the phialides without distinct collarettes, such as those that are present in the neotype specimen. Second, there are now molecular data suggesting that the species dermatitidis is distinctive enough to merit its own genus.