Another myxomycete

[CapAndBracket]

Originally Posted by mykonik

Hi JP - these look like contamination to me - from some type of hyphomycete by the look of them !

Nick

Perfectly good suggestion, i can see at least 3 contenders in Ellis and Ellis,
i assumed they were contamination but didn't know where from which
concerned me , i did wonder if they could be from moss based on the idea
i know nothing about moss spores. (that's another course i must do sometime).

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa, evolution has taken a different path with this species
in that the spores are formed on the outside individually on stalks, after air
drying for a couple of days i hoped to catch this feature under the scope but
failed as it broke down on application of stain.


X1000

The hyaline spores took stain very well, i hope this goes some way to showing another
feature of the species, spores are not all the same size or shape.



Also this morning a fruit body of Enteridium lycoperdon. On hazle (Corylus).

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Grow your own myxomycete



The large lumps are soggy oat flakes (food), the fine yellow vein like strands
are the myxomycet plasmodia, these looked promising yesterday, then this
morning there were several black specks on the culture (see photo).

I'm thinking oh no they are being attacked by mold (fungal), i removed a
group and selected one for microscope (put rest in seperate petri dish to see what happens).


X1000

The veiw under scope looks not unlike spores, it seems from (Stephenson and Stempen) that the
plasmodium is producing Sclerotia (grouped,resistant macrocysts) that myxomycetes do if the
environment is not totally to their liking. They can persist in the environment for a long time like
this waiting for good conditions, and can change back to plasmodium at will.

In the photo it looks like dust all over the image, these are the flagellate swarm cells that origonaly
emerged from the spores, (how many million?), they can form the macrocysts or carry on as part of the plasmodium.

This does explain nicely why myxomycetes are not fungi, in this state with their flagella (porpeller
like tail), engulfing bacteria as food they are more akin to zoo plankton. Assuming the sclerotia are
being formed due to lack of food (maybe a differnt reason!) i have given them some more food,
and will let the box dry a little so more of them become amaeboid (loose flagella and crawl around)
two forms which they can swap at will (are these things clever).

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

This really is a journey into the unknown, these seem to have just gone on
producing more sclerotia (resting spores) so for some reason don't like the
environment. I'm now thinking overcrowding (as single sclerotia are used to
start cultures), so i'm going to let the boxes dry out and then try starting a
fresh culture with single sclerotia and store others in fridge so they think it's
winter (stratification).

there really is little information on this subject, what i have found suggests
success is tenuous, dependant on species ability to stave of fungal attack,
these i believe are an Arcyria.sp, which fall somewhere in the middle of good
and low success rate, but hey ho failure is part of trying.

Cheers J.P.

[flaxton]

Don't know what it is but it looks pretty


Mal

[CapAndBracket]

with those nice long stalks (like a bit of fuse wire) i would say you have
a stemonitis.sp, axifera would be a good candidate. Glad some one found
somethng, still waiting for promised rain here.

Cheers J.P.

[NickCantle]

I'll post some Myxos soon

[CapAndBracket]

Following what was happening to earlier sample of these, i picked of a couple of soggy oat flakes and placed in petri dish, added oat flakes as growth was taking place and you can see now plenty of plasmodium spread out ocross the dish, but again having reached this stage the plasmodium seems to be turning into resting spores (sclerotia, black spots upper left), so still no sign of fruit bodies.



Closer view of plasmodium, i think tonight i'm again going to transplant some of the soggy oat flakes to a fresh dish, some plasmodium goes with them and seems quite happy to grow, so maybe a differnt substrate will enhance results.

Cheers J.P.

[flaxton]

I brought a piece of wood home to see what might develop and



About 1cm tall and it looks as though there is much more to come from the brown "blobs".
A little like Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa but much bigger.

Thanks

Mal

[CapAndBracket]

Well that looks very interesting indeed, i await to see what it looks like
tommorow.
I sense you are getting near the stage of a draw filled with petri dishes

Cheers J.P.

[CapAndBracket]

Compared with yesterday's photo, a huge amount more resting bodies
(sclerotia) in the form of black specks, this dish was just a couple or three
soggy oat flakes transfered from another culture last week and given a few
oat flakes each day as food source. So they are multiplying at a large rate
indicating temp and food source are fine but why they don't go the
next stage to fruiting bodies remains a mystery. ho hum



Very nice arrangement of this Probable Arcyria. sp today.

Cheers J.P.

[flaxton]

Originally Posted by CapAndBracket

Well that looks very interesting indeed, i await to see what it looks like
tommorow.
I sense you are getting near the stage of a draw filled with petri dishes

Cheers J.P.

It still looks the same. Have you got a description of Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa var arbuscula?

Mal

[CapAndBracket]

I don't have a description but found this image on a chzech biolib site for
Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa var arbuscula.

Cheers J.P.

[flaxton]

Originally Posted by CapAndBracket

I don't have a description but found this image on a chzech biolib site for
Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa var arbuscula.

Cheers J.P.

Doesn't look like that one then

Mal

[CapAndBracket]

I'm struggling to find anything that looks a match, but am wondering if
maybe you have a cellular slime mold (as apposed to the acellular we have
so far), and those blobs could be the aggregated cells heading to join the
main structure. All i can suggest is keep it in a moist chamber (any food
container lined with wet tissue) and await development.

Sure is a lot to be done (and try to catallogue) on these micro species,
had quite a bit of rain here in last few days and think i'm going to turn
over quite a few lumps of wood tommorow, and see if i can find anything
interesting.

Literature suggests sclerotia formation is caused by lack of food or drying out,
both of which i thought i had avoided, ho hum.

Cheers J.P.

[mykonik]

Originally Posted by flaxton

I brought a piece of wood home to see what might develop and



About 1cm tall and it looks as though there is much more to come from the brown "blobs".
A little like Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa but much bigger.

Thanks

Mal

Hi Mal - this is not a myxomycete but apparently some kind of 'clavarioid' species - impossible to say what, but it reminds me of Lentaria afflata - which would make it an extremely interesting find !

However, that is only an educated guess since I have never personally seen that species in real life myself (only pictures !), and it could also just as well be a very young Clavaria or related species !

Nick

[CapAndBracket]

Not much so far to day of myxomycetes, just these tiny tots.

Cheers J.P.

[Nettle Runner]

I found a couple today in Sherwood Forest



They also come in white



Les

[CapAndBracket]

Thank's, much more interesting than my find, notice in background of white
one there is Orbilia.sp, this keeps happening with my finds, so they can
obviously co-habit.

Cheers J.P.

[flaxton]

A couple of Myxo's for ID



Stemonitis
and



Mal

[CapAndBracket]

Look like Stemonitis.sp and Trichia.sp, can't be anymore help without putting
them under the scpope (when ripe).

Cheers J.P.

[flaxton]

Originally Posted by CapAndBracket

Look like Stemonitis.sp and Trichia.sp, can't be anymore help without putting
them under the scpope (when ripe).

Cheers J.P.

Thanks JP

[Nettle Runner]

One from yesterday in Anston Stones Wood



It was so dark, I had trouble seeing to get focus.

Les

[CapAndBracket]

thank's for posting that, some have to appear here soon.
I have some more plasmodium growing on a different substrate, but will they
fruit

Cheers J.P.

[NickCantle]

I never see myxo's