Myxomycete - past plasmodial stage

3 Paddys River, ACT

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Identification history

	Myxomycete - past plasmodial stage	9 Jul 2021	MichaelMulvaney
	Unidentified	11 Sep 2020	Caric

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User's notes

Coordinates not precise: Lyrebird/Cascades trail. On a dead, burnt stump near a pool. Unsure what these orange spheres are: animal, vegetable or fungus, but an ant seems to be tending them in the first photo so guessing they are ant eggs. No sap suckers hidden in the spheres seeing as the log is dead. There were many clusters of 'eggs' on the stump. Most were bright orange but one cluster more brown. Tried to take a sideways shot to show how they were attached. Note also that the circles on the 'eggs' are actually light reflected from the flash.

3 comments

JudithRoach wrote:

11 Sep 2020

I think maybe a slime mould. The ant's interest is very interesting.

JonLewis wrote:

13 Sep 2020

Hi Caric, sorry, I can't quite see the ant well enough to do the ID. It is likely to be a Monomorium, but I can't be sure. Interesting to see it investigating the slime mould though. Thanks, Jon

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

9 Jul 2021

I asked Teresa Van der Heul, whether they were slime moulds and she said "this is definitely a myxomycetes. Note those lovely white stems visible in the second shot, and the colour change from orange to brown; this will happen in just a few hours with some species. From the images shown I'm guessing this is either a Trichia or a Hemitrichia species. Most likely its Trichia decipiens! This has the quickest colour change in our area however, we need microscopic examination to obtain a positive identification.

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Location information

Sighting information

16 - 100 Abundance
6 Sep 2020 12:15 PM Recorded on
Caric Recorded by
Collections
Slime Moulds Caric

Additional information

5mm to 12mm Animal size
Unknown Gender
Eggs Breeding behaviour

Species information

Myxomycete - past plasmodial stage Scientific name
Common name
Not Sensitive
Local native
Non-invasive or negligible
Up to 1304.9m Recorded at altitude
Machine learning

Record quality

Images or audio
More than one media file
Verified by an expert moderator
Nearby sighting(s) of same species
GPS evidence of location
Description
Additional attributes