Slime Molds

The myxomycetes (plasmodial slime molds) are a group of fungus-like organisms usually present and sometimes abundant in terrestrial ecosystems. The myxomycete life cycle involves two very different trophic (feeding) stages, one consisting of uninucleate amoebae, with or without flagella, and the other consisting of a distinctive multinucleate structure, the plasmodium. Myxomycete plasmodia typically occur in cool, moist, shady places such as within crevices of decaying wood, beneath the partially decayed bark of logs and stumps, and in leaf litter on the forest floor. Under favorable conditions, the plasmodium gives rise to one or more fruiting bodies containing spores. The spores of myxomycetes are for most species apparently wind-dispersed and complete the life cycle by germinating to produce the uninucleate amoeboflagellate cells.

http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/tx/Slime_Molds/

Myxomycetes

http://www.virtuallaboratory.net/BioFun-KFI/lectureNotes/Topic6-2_Metazoans.htm

Making metazoans

http://www.fetchbook.info/Myxomycetes_A_Handbook_of_Slime_Molds.html

http://bicmra.usuhs.mil/Physarum/PhysarumPlus.html

An Internet Resource for Students of Physarum polycephalum and Other Acellular Slime Molds

Slime molds are moist, shapeless creatures that feed on decaying matter on the barks of trees and along the forest floor. These molds are not easy to classify: like plants, they reproduce by sending out spores, yet their bodies are continually pulsating, allowing them to actually travel through the forest in search of food.

http://www.pulseplanet.com/feat_archive/Jan99/

http://www.pulseplanet.com/archive/Jan99/1801.html

http://www.uwc.ca/pearson/fungi/slime.htm

http://www4.d25.k12.id.us/phs/biology/slimemolds.html

Facts on Slime Molds