Useful Website for Myxomycetes

[Lancashire Lad]

Whilst stumbling around the internet to try to find info pointing towards a possible ID of a myxo found yesterday, I chanced upon this site: - Eumycetozoan Research Project and was quite surprised by the amount of info on there. (As an absolute novice, I found the introduction to myxomycetes in the educational materials section very interesting).

Now, I appreciate WAB's policy preference for not directly linking to, or advertising other sites, but I couldn't think of any way to bring this to the attention of WAB's fungi fans, without showing the link.

So, delete this if you must Mods, but I think being aware of that site could prove useful for anyone with an interest in Myxomycetes/slimemoulds.

This has also got me thinking - There must be several excellent fungi dedicated sites on the net, of which WAB's fungi forum devotees may or may not be aware.

Would it be acceptable perhaps, to have a dedicated thread within WAB's fungi forum where members could actually mention the names of sites found useful, (or better still, include a link ), so that other members who are not aware, might benefit ? - Surely the making available of such info, no matter what the source, can only be to the good.

Any thoughts on the idea? (Don't all shoot me down at once ).

Regards
Mike.

[kiltoncomp]

Hi Mike,
at the risk of being shot down with you, here is another site members may like to see on the subject (probably seen it already?)

Badhamia ultri page

Brian.

[CapAndBracket]

Gallery of Myxomycetes

Another worth a look.

Cheers J.P.

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by Lancashire Lad

This has also got me thinking - There must be several excellent fungi dedicated sites on the net, of which WAB's fungi forum devotees may or may not be aware.

Would it be acceptable perhaps, to have a dedicated thread within WAB's fungi forum where members could actually mention the names of sites found useful, (or better still, include a link ), so that other members who are not aware, might benefit ? - Surely the making available of such info, no matter what the source, can only be to the good.

Any thoughts on the idea? (Don't all shoot me down at once ).

Regards
Mike.

I think it is an excellent idea ... and as a stickied thread. Maybe if someone as knowledgeable as Chris checks out the websites first, see if the info is generally reliable and the link worthy of inclusion. And first on the list should be that excellent German Mollisia website!! OK, some websites do disappear, but the good ones seem to stay and get developed further. I for one can do with as much help as there is out there to identify fungi and the 'not-quite-fungi' like myxomycetes, and I'm sure I'm just one of many with only very small fungi id libraries at our fingertips.

Cheers
Melanie

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by SheffieldLass

I think it is an excellent idea ... and as a stickied thread. Maybe if someone as knowledgeable as Chris checks out the websites first, see if the info is generally reliable and the link worthy of inclusion. And first on the list should be that excellent German Mollisia website!! OK, some websites do disappear, but the good ones seem to stay and get developed further. I for one can do with as much help as there is out there to identify fungi and the 'not-quite-fungi' like myxomycetes, and I'm sure I'm just one of many with only very small fungi id libraries at our fingertips.

Cheers
Melanie

I also think that it's a good idea but no way would I be so arrogant as to give a 'yea or nay' to any sites . . . . for example, I use the FRDBI daily at the moment as I am updating my work on the Yorkshire rust fungi, but it has its fair share of slips, duplicate records etc. - it's up to individual users to work through the records and come to their own conclusions

we can all comment on sites, photo's on the web etc. as we wish - I agree Andreas' site is very good, as is Stip Helleman's on Orbilia and other discomycetes, Tom Volk's Fungus Pages are full of information, the BMS is making some of its identification guides available online, M.C. Cooke's colossal Illustrations of British Fungi has been made available online (admittedly not very well, but I can carp because I am lucky enough to have access to the original volumes at work), Index Fungorum means that you can very often read the original description of a fungus and can sort out the minefield of synonyms . . .

surely we do not need to worry about drawing people's attention to such sites, often put together by amateurs for amateurs

at a time when - in this country at least - mycological taxonomy is on its last legs (I wince when I see the occasional jibe at taxonomists on these pages - you'll miss them when they're gone!) it is crazy that more information is not out in the public domain - but I am a bit of an anarchist when it comes to making as much information as possible available to the largest number of people

cheers

Chris

[SheffieldLass]

Originally Posted by Chris Yeates

I also think that it's a good idea but no way would I be so arrogant as to give a 'yea or nay' to any sites . . . . for example, I use the FRDBI daily at the moment as I am updating my work on the Yorkshire rust fungi, but it has its fair share of slips, duplicate records etc. - it's up to individual users to work through the records and come to their own conclusions

we can all comment on sites, photo's on the web etc. as we wish ...

cheers

Chris

I think in my mind I envisaged something very concise, web address and brief detail of what it covers, so it would be very easy to just scan down and find what you are looking for, rather than getting lost in a lot of comment .... That being said, the comment would be very interesting, but it could do with being a click away, so that it didn't all just become a tangled thread. But not sure how you would achieve that given the way this website works.

Also having come across some websites out there that are more about personal vanity rather than accuracy - these at first glance can seem as if they know what they are on about, or you may need a good knowledge of the area they are covering to recognise the extent of their limitations. Those of you who have been looking at fungi for many years will probably know/recognise the authors or group/institution of the good ones anyway, whereas novices like myself would not. And no-one is infallible, so there are bound to be some slip-ups even in the most carefully researched websites, and certainly some bits that have been superceded by newer knowledge.

I have to admit I get annoyed when certain information (usually produced by government departments) can only be bought ... like radon maps of Britain, details of Building Regulations, British Standards etc etc ... ok, not fungi here, so I'm digressing ... so I'm always very impressed by hard-working individuals who produce very high quality websites for free access under the Creative Commons banner, and there are certainly quite a few mycologists who are doing that, rather than only doing it for the money... I do know people have to make an honest living too though ....

Melanie