Other Species?

[RyChu]

I've pretty much gotten the hang of P. polycephalum (w/ the exception of sporulation). Does anybody have recommendations for other species?

[ian]

Sporulating is easy - warm bright and hungry gets you spores.

As you for other species, not many are in cultivation, if you have Mandy from me, that's a presumed badhamia species ( BTW it's easier/faster to get colonies from spore with Mandy). Your best bet is to go looking with moist chambers.

I'm updating the guide on my work website but short version - grab likely bits of stuff, put on wet tissue in the dark, check weekly for a couple of months. You're after stuff that's already a bit decayed - twigs & leaves work well, apparently pot plant soils are promising. Success rate isn't bad - 1\4 to 3\4 of chambers eventually show something. Banana skins are appealing according to one paper - but they'll stink up the place something awful. 

Few species actually eat oats (less than 10% according to a 1970s paper) but it's worth a try - your challenge will be finding a colony you can feed, will grow to a reasonable size and survives drying. You'll get a ton of other things of course - protostelids are good to find and cellular slimes will show up (not to mention the sea of actual mould you're letting yourself in for).

Getting an id is difficult - plasmodia are basically impossible, you have to get fruiting bodies, some of them are stunning to look at 

[RyChu]

Sorry, I meant that I haven't gotten the hand of growing from spores. I've had sporulation, intentionally and accidentally, multiple times.

I'll look into other species. Thanks!

[ian]

Here's the link to a pictorial guide -

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/outreach/slimemold/wildslime

[RyChu]

Thanks!

[RyChu]

Wait... so if P. poly is a single cell, how does it produce spores?

[ian]

Meiosis - they're going from diploid to haploid so halving chromosome numbers, the sex part they do on the opposite side of life cycle as amoebae. The protostelids don't even have the luxury of multiple nucleii - one amoeba, two spores... 

[Brent]

I've been thinking of trying to work with dog vomit (Fuligo Septica). Usually pretty easy to find in the U.S.

[ian]

I've never found fuligo fresh enough to take plasmodium from, no luck from spores. Moist chamber is working for me though - I need to try soil, apparently half the amoeba in soil are actually myxamoebae 

[Brent]

Interesting I didn't know that. Will be out looking soon as winter is over, gonna try the moist chamber too, hoping ill get lucky on hiking trips and find it fresh in the mornings

[ian]

If you grab any random bits of decaying stuff leave them in a tub on damp tissue, you'll get something, very few will be cultivatable but it's always worth a try. Both of mine came from back gardens rather than out in wilds.