Project Noah is a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.
Project Noah is a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere.
Brefeldia maxima
A white plasmodial slime mold with a jelly like plasmodium and vesicular fruiting bodies (like tapioca pearls) seen as clumps on a gum tree log. Vesicules were shiny and slightly sticky. Pic #5 shows less developed vesicles but the mas was larger in size. Pic #3 shows small black ants around the vesicles. The clumps would have been about 50mm wide and 100 mm long.
Tree log - nature reserve-some moisture seen inside the log -
The ants are supposedly feeding on an exudate from the aethalium ( fruiting body). Henrik Kylin in his article, Mycologist,May 2001 states that several species of arthropods feed on this slime mold - this includes ants, moths and isopods. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:B... http://www.wisconsinmushrooms.com/Brefel...
Lat: -37.95, Long: 145.24
Spotted on Sep 19, 2012
Submitted on Sep 23, 2012
1 Comment
It is amazing how similar it looks to Tapioca which has been soake din water overnite. Good find!