Top image: Cluster of fruiting bodies, most still sealed.
Horizontal FOV 5mm
Canon 10D
Canon 20 mm Macro on tubes @ f/5.6
122 images at .001 inch increments
Middle image: smaller clusters.
Horizontal FOV 2.5mm
Canon 10D
Canon 20 mm Macro on tubes @ f/3.5
42 images at .0005 inch increments
Bottom Image: close-up
Horizontal FOV 1.5mm
Canon 10D
Leitz 20X lg objective
65 images at .00025 inch increments
All images proceed in Combine ZM and Photoshop.
This is the first uncommon myxo I have found in all my years of myxo hunting. I thought at first it was the rare Calonema aureum because they look almost identical to the naked eye. The difference is a subtle one, only found by removing some of the spore binding material or capillitium. In the case of my collected sample the capillitium is composed of simple or branched smooth elaters. Calonema has a network of sculptured branching threads. This is how the two species are identified from each other.
I burden you with this information only because the study of these myxos gives you cause sometimes to power up the microscope for some detective work. I also know that Ken would like verification of my identification. A photomicrograph will, someday soon I hope, be posted in the amateur microscopy form of this myxos spores and elaters.
Walt
