Background Infections due to the zoophilic dermatophyte Arthroderma benhamiae are being more frequently diagnosed in Belgium since a few years. The most common source of infection is guinea pigs. This species which is referred to the Trichophyton species of A.benhamiae can cause tinea capitis, tinea corporis, tinea manus and more frequently tinea faciei. These strains appear with a bright yellow thallus in culture and do not easily sporulate making them difficult to identify. Sequencing of these strains reveals “Arthroderma benhamiae”. At the contrary white strains of T. mentagrophytes complex are identified by sequencing as “T. mentagrophytes variety interdigitale” or T. interdigitale. The aim of the study is the evaluation of the genetic heterogeneity of these two subtypes of the T. mentagrophytes complex by using the DiversiLab® system. Material and methods 32 strains were collected by the National Reference Center for mycoses between 2012 and 2015. The fungal strains were identified by microscopy or ITS sequencing. All strains appearing white with a yellow pigment in culture and being identified as “A. benhamiae” by DNA sequencing were included as well reference strains. Some selected strains appearing white in culture and being identified as “T. mentagrophytes var. interdigitale” by DNA sequencing were also included. The genotypic analysis was performed by the DiversiLab® system (bioMérieux) by DNA fingerprinting generation. Results Both groups showed huge differences in DNA fingerprints. The similarity calculated by the DiversiLab® tool between the two groups was 70%. This reflects a high genotypic heterogeneity regarding the two types of strains analyzed. This is surprising given that both groups belong to the same species complex. The comparison of these two distinct DNA fingerprints with the mold database of bioMérieux generated identification as “T. mentagrophytes” for both groups. We noticed that the library contained two distinct patterns of DNA fingerprints (profile 1, strains MK55-60 and profile 2, ...