MYXOMYCETES XVI – The Dark Lords of Comatricha

[Walter Piorkowski]

MYXOMYCETES XVI – The Dark Lords of Comatricha

Top image: 4 Comatricha myxos amongst jelly fungi.
Horizontal FOV 5mm
Canon 10D
Canon 20mm Macro on tubes @ f/3.5
119 images at .001 inch increments


Middle Image: Close up of two peridium of Comatricha.
Horizontal FOV 2mm
Canon 10D
Leitz 20X lg. objective on tubes
75 images at .00025 inch increments

Bottom Image: Three mature sporangia of Comatricha.
Horizontal FOV 1.5mm
Canon 10D
Leitz 20X lg. objective on tubes
110 images at .00025 inch increments


All images processed in Combine ZM and Photoshop
Top and middle collected and imaged on 7/11/07, bottom imaged on 7/15/07

My apologies for the silly non scientific title, but I don’t know which species I have here and it sounded kind of catchy. They are definitely of the Genus Comatricha as after they matured I was able to find the spore mass entangled in a web of pale brown threads similar to genus Stemonitis. They are defiantly in the fructification stage, but nearing the end, by the looks of it. A very lucky find at this stage. The middle image is another pair in the cluster with only one exhibiting the strange cap. The round overexposed white spot on the right subject was a bubble of clear liquid of unknown origin. The bottom image is my attempt to show the thread structure after a majority of the spores have escaped. Heavily tent lit to take out the shine it exhibits some off color but the thread network is visible in the stack. This is best seen under the microscope. A subject for a future post in the other forum.

Walt

[beetleman]

Excellent photos Walt. I just like staring at them for a long time and taking in all the cool details.
_________________
Take Nothing but Pictures--Leave Nothing but Footprints.
Doug Breda

[Ken Ramos]

Great images there Walt. Really like the title and the first photo has to be my favorite.
_________________
Ken Ramos
Rutherford Co., Western North Carolina

"Social isolate?"