Top image: Pair of entwined Stemonitis
Horizontal FOV 10mm
Canon 10D
Canon 35mm Macro on tubes @ f/4
75 images at .002 inch increments
Middle Image: Close up of entwined pair
Horizontal FOV 4.75mm
Canon 10D
Canon 35mm Macro on tubes @ f/4
114 images at .001 inch increments
Bottom Image: First emergence shape
Horizontal FOV 2.5mm
Canon 10D
20mm Canon macro @ f/3.5 on tubes
80 images at .0005 inch increments
All images processed in Combine ZM and Photoshop
Myxomycete genus Stemonitis produces a tall slender mature fruiting body, however it emerges as a small sphere. Seen from overhead they look like small white balls. This however doesn’t last as the ball assumes a banana shape atop a lengthening stalk.
Although not affecting its final successful maturation, myxos sometimes form their fruiting bodies bound tightly together at the stalk. These images capture this phenomenon early in the fructification process. The lower image shows a tightly packed cluster early after emergence. In less than two hours, all of its neighbors had assumed the height and shape of the two top images.
Unfortunately the sporangia (fruiting bodies) reacted badly to being remove from their environment and froze their growth at this point. In the next 6 hours they had shriveled and turned a light brown. They will not mature. Lest you think that I am out to destroy the species, I always leave more in the field than I take for photography. This is also smart to allow the subjects to reach maturity to allow for interior and spore identification.
Please Ken don’t get too jealous, I’m having the best year in the last 5 collecting myxos and there are more to come.
Walt
