Subject: Re: Slime Mold collection

From: [email-masked] (Beverly Erlebacher)
Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1993 20:02:24 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Thomas Grant Edwards <[email-masked]> wrote:
>This may be a beginner's question, but what is a good way to go
>collecting slime molds in the suburbs?  How can I get slime molds
>spores without collecting other gunk?  When should I go collecting?

Long ago, I had a student job working for a fungal geneticist studying
true slime molds (Myxomycetes).  He was using the species Didymium iridis,
and we got new genotypes by buying bananas at the supermarket, eating them,
laying the peels on wet paper towels in enamel pans covered by plastic wrap
(tray, towels and wrap were first autoclaved) and checking the trays every
few days to see what developed.  We named the slime molds after the stickers
on the bananas, e.g. Honduras-8, CostaRica-5, etc., but maybe they were
endemic to the supermarket.

I tried the same method with some bits of rotten tree bark from the
woods and isolated some kind of monster (Physarum? something cinerea?)
slime mold that ate agar, or at least dug channels in it.

Have fun!

Beverly Erlebacher
Toronto, Ontario Canada