Slime Molds

Slime Moulds live independent lives, but during food shortages, some will come together and form into an enormous single cell called a slug.

Badhamia Utricularia

Badhamia utricularis is a species of slime mould in the family Physaraceae. As you walk around in our island forests, and if you look, you might see just the fruiting bodies hanging on the underside of deadwood of this slime mould. My son Robert was walking along the estuary shore of the Salmon River and found, up under the bank, hanging from roots a good example of Badhamia Utricularis right at the beginning of fruiting. Read More….

 

Black Pearl Slime Mould

Black Pearl Slime Mould, as its name states,  is a slime mould. Slime moulds are at the moment classified as Protozoans. Slime moulds were once thought to be fungi because they produce spores in the same way as fungi. Read More….

 

 

Insect Egg Slime Mould

Slime moulds were historically classified as a fungal species, but they have now been reclassified into the class Myxomycetes. Leocarpus Fragilis is found worldwide and typically inhabits dark, moist forest settings, growing on decaying leaves, branches, and logs. Read More….

 

 

Scrambled Egg Slime Mould

Scrambled Egg Slime Mould has traits similar to both fungi and animals. Their life cycles can be quite unusual as they progress through various stages. When times are good, they live independently, but if conditions change and the food supply disappears or conditions get too hot or dry or any other big change, the individual cells will begin to gather together to form a single structure. The individual cells will send out a chemical signal directing all of them to gather together. Read More….

 

Slime moulds live independent lives, but during food shortages, some will come together and form into an enormous single cell called a slug. Slime moulds have traits similar to both fungi and animals. Their life cycles can be quite unusual as they progress through various stages. When times are good, they live independently, but if conditions change and the food supply disappears or conditions get too hot or dry or any other big change, the individual cells will begin to gather together to form a single structure. The individual cells will send out a chemical signal directing all of them to gather together.

This new structure is the slug, so-called because it really resembles a slug. The slug will creep along, seeking out food. When the communal cells sense that they’ve come across more food, the slug stops cells in the mould and now begins to do different things. Some cells will begin creating an anchor, others begin creating a stalk with a spore cap, while others become spores in that cap.

When a drop of rain hits the spore cap hard enough, the spores will fly out. They are a bit like plant seeds. Each of them will become an independent cell when they land and begin a new life cycle. Slime moulds were at one time thought to be fungi, but unlike fungi, they can move almost like an animal, making them very different from fungi. Slime moulds are made up of individual cells that can come together to form a single mass. They can be orange, red, yellow, brown, black, blue, or white and are usually quite bright.

These large masses act like giant amoebas, moving along slowly while searching for food. They can navigate around obstacles, and if a food source is nearby, they head straight for it. Slime moulds are very interesting. You can chop up a slime mould, and the pieces will just pull themselves back together again.

There are 2 kinds of slime moulds, one is the plasmodial slime moulds, which consist of a big cell wall that surrounds thousands or millions of nuclei. They contain proteins called microfilaments that act like tiny muscles; these muscles allow the mass to crawl along at about 2.5 cm a day. The other type is the cellular slime moulds, which also produce spores, but these spores form into amoeba-like cells. The cells live individual lives and never form into larger structures.

When nutrients and moisture are scarce, individual cells send out a chemical beacon to attract other cells of the same species. The cells join up to form a mass that looks and acts like a slug to take them to a more favourable location. Slime moulds feed on decaying vegetation, bacteria, fungi, and even other slime moulds. They are most commonly found in forest settings but can be seen in gardens.

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