Slime moulds

Neither plants, animals, nor fungi, slime moulds are protists with a complex life cycle. They begin as amoebae living in soil and the forest floor. Later, amoebae form slimy plasmodia, capable of active movement. After hours or days of crawling on the forest floor, the plasmodia form fruiting bodies with spores. They are often large enough to be seen with the naked eye and resemble fungi. That’s why slime moulds have traditionally been studied by mycologists and are called fungi-like protists.

We invite citizen scientists to find and collect three groups of slime moulds: Arcyria, Dictydiaethalium and Dianema.

Slime moulds are poorly studied.
Because we don’t have enough information about how many species exist and what are their distribution ranges, they are left out of nature conservation efforts.

In the target groups of slime moulds

• Some species are still undescribed
• More data are needed to understand where they occur and how rare they are
• DNA sequences are needed to build a phylogenetic tree of slime moulds

By reporting your findings, you contribute to the growing body of knowledge about slime moulds, and your records become valuable resources for nature conservation.

In the forest, look on and under rotting logs, damp leaf litter, decaying bark, mossy stumps, fallen branches and twiglets. Some of slime moulds prefer fruiting on stems and leaves of living herbs, and in the arid regions – on cacti and succulents. Dry your specimens, pack them to match boxes, and send to your country-level point of contact.

For more information please refer to materials below.