Image 1 - A pair of sporangium emerging from a common hypothallus.
Image 2 – A single sporangium emerging from the same hypothallus.
Image 3 – A complete view of a pair of sporangium of which the subject in image 2 is the left hand member.
Image 1 - Leitz 10X Pv objective
Horizontal F.O.V. approx. 1.5 mm
Image stack, 93 images at 5 micron increments
Reflected light, Diffused dome, fiber optic illumination
Image 2 - Leitz 10X Pv objective
Horizontal F.O.V. approx. 1.5 mm
Image stack, 121 images at 5 micron increments
Reflected light, Diffused dome, fiber optic illumination
Image 3- Leitz 4X Plan fluorite objective
Vertical F.O.V. 3.0 mm
Image stack, 30 images at .0025 inch increments
Reflected light, Diffused dome, fiber optic illumination
Leitz Ortholux microscope
Canon 10D
Combine ZM and Photoshop processing.
Every once in a while everything goes right in the photography of these difficult subjects. I have finally got my lighting technique down so that I can record the shiny clear membrane of the hypothallus. This plastic looking material is deposited by the plasmodium and forms a continuous surface layer where the fruiting bodies emerge and can connect the bases of a number of fruiting bodies, in this case four. In this particular example the hypothallus was actually on a mass of dung left over from what I expect were pill bugs digesting the decaying tree trunk.
My subjects here are either Hemitrichia calyculata or Trichia decipiens of the Family Trichiaceae. It is too early to tell at this point as the spores and capillitium must be examined in detail and they have not yet formed. Not even the stalk has formed, although the orange peridium sphere is well developed.
The myxo is already under fungal attack and a single strand of hypha, a filamentous cell of the fungus, is seen between the two. Remarkably the process resolved the tubular cell wall. Some more hyphae can be seen in image 3. Enjoy!
Walt
Sort of reminds me of molten rock though, lava. I still cannot get over though, how the plasmodium goes through such a drastic physiological transition from protoplasm, to a myxomycete. 