Pseudogymnoascus destructans (formerly known as Geomyces destructans) is a psychrophilic (cold-loving) fungus that causes white-nose syndrome (WNS), a fatal disease that has devastated bat populations in parts of the United States and Canada since 2006. Unlike other species of Geomyces, P. destructans grows in the temperatures found in winter bat hibernacula (4-20 °C). It was detected in South Dakota in May 2018.
US Fish and Wildlife Service
News - Disease outbreak
National Park Service
The name “White Nose Syndrome”
(WNS) is apt because of the telltale white fungus growing on the noses of most
infected bats. Infected bats arise from hibernation
to attempt to deal with the fungal irritation, but in doing so, they prematurely
burn up their fat stores and starve to death in mid-winter.