Customer Reviews

Myxomycetes: A Handbook of Slime Molds

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The slime molds are generally little noticed, but very strange life forms that could easily fit in a science fiction book. The swarm cells and myxamoebae unite to form first an amoeboid zygote, then the strange, crawling, plasmodium stage, and finally the fungus-like fruiting body. The plasmodia can be (in the case of Fuligo) large yellow pulsating crawling blobs that suddenly appear on people's lawns. Others are less noticeable, but often brightly colored. I have seen one of these plasmodia in my life- a bright pink blob that disappeared into the ground when I raised a rotting log in the Pinaleno Mountains of Arizona. I was certainly startled!

Stephenson and Stempen have written an excellent book on these strange critters in "Myxomycetes: A Handbook of Slime Molds." It fills a gap in the literature on natural history. It is my hope that more people will be able to appreciate these neat organisms through the descriptions, excellent line drawings and well-rendered color plates.

I will disagree with one reviewer's dislike of the describer's name after the scientific name, however. It is there for the convenience of other taxonomist as least as much as the vanity of the describer. If I know that Physarum nutans was described by Persoon it tells me something about where I should look for the original description and may also give me some idea of when the name probably originated. Also Physarum cinereum (Batsch) Persoon tells me that Batsch wrote the original description, but placed the species in a different genus, which was than changed to the present genus by Persoon. Thus such "vain" additions are often important to other workers in the field.

I do agree with the same reviewer that some further discussion of how slime molds are classified might have helped an otherwise excellent book. However, I am also fully aware that the classification is still in flux and no final answers may yet be possible until DNA studies are done (and maybe not even then!).

Read this book if you find the weirdness of the world fascinating! Better still, use it to find and identify slime molds. Good hunting.

Did you know that the classic horror movie "The Blob" is freely based on a true story?

Well, *very* freely...

Slime molds are a curious and often overlooked group of organisms, defying all attempts at classification. Are they fungi? Are they animals? Or something else entirely? Currently, most slime molds are believed to be related to amoebae. But then, what on earth is an amoeba? Previously classified as animals, they are now an independent "kingdom".

Slime molds have a complicated life cycle. Their most notorious phase is the plasmodium, actually a multinucleate cell. The plasmodium is bloblike, slimy and can become quite large (the size, say, of a mushroom). Also, it can move around. Often, the plasmodia are brightly coloured as well. This created quite a panic in a suburb of Dallas, Texas in 1973. The yellow plasmodia of the slime mold species Fuligo septica suddenly appeared on people's lawns, and when blasted with water, broke apart - with the parts continuing to slowly creep around, even getting somewhat bigger! Naturally, people panicked and assumed UFOs had something to do with it. Or had they just been watching "The Blob" too much? Eventually, the plasmodium settles down and becomes a fruiting body with spores. It's this strange life cycle, combining an amoeba-like stage and a fungus-like stage, which has long baffled researchers.

"Myxomycetes" is a good introduction to these organisms. The book is intended as a field guide to 175 species of slime molds found in eastern North America, but since most species are cosmopolitan, the book can probably be used in Europe as well. It should be noted that all illustrations are in black and white. Many of these creatures are extremely small, and found only in decaying wood or litter. Still, it's a pity that no colour plates of the more dramatic species have been included (such as the previously mentioned Fuligo septica).

Apart from the species presentations, "Myxomycetes" contain chapters on how to collect and study slime molds, their geographical distribution, and their ecology. There is also a reference section.

Apparently, slime molds prefer the temperate region, being less abundant in the tropics. They can be found in deserts and in the hills, but they prefer woods where they grow on bark, litter or dung. Some insects have specialized in attacking slime molds, including the slime mold beetles and the slime mold fly (which, however, may help them spread the spores). In the Mexican state of Veracruz, some of the natives actually eat our old friend Fuligo septica! They call it "moon feces", while the preferred English term is "dog vomit".

Personally, I just call it The Blob...

Finally, a word of warning. This is a typical book for nerds. If you don't already have a strong interest in slime molds, fungi or perhaps amoebae, I don't think you will appreciate it. Buy a more popularized book on mushrooms first! However, if you are one of those nature-lovers who just love to poke around in the litter, or look under the bark of trees, "Myxomycetes" might come in handy.

I was so excited to get this book, to finally be able to put a name to the blobs I'd seen in the woods, but it's promise to me as a field guide did not pan out. Be aware that the only color plates are the front and back covers, at least the one I purchased in December 2009. It is paperback with black and white line drawings of greatly enlarged reproductive structures and black and white photographs of what you'd see under a high-power microscope. There are no color photos of plasmodium, the blob stage that you can see with the naked eye, and scant illustrations of it.

All that said, the illustrations are wonderful and there is good information in the book. Information and species descriptions are presented in a straighforward, factual manner that more advanced students will appreciate. It is not a collection of interesting field anecdotes or stories, though with the peculiarities of this group I did expect that. There is plenty of basis for a creative science writer to expound on these, but alas, my romance with slime was not to be. I'm sure other readers with more patience to figure things out on their own will find the book useful, but I admit I don't have the patience to scan all 54 species descriptions to find what I'm looking for. A key is provided, but it is based on the microscopic fruiting bodies, so for the layman it is useless.

All I want to know is, what was that big neon orange blob I'd seen moving through the woods? I'm sorry to report that the answer escaped me in this book.

When ordering this book, I wasnt 100% sure what to expect when I opened the pages.
I was hoping for information, rather than a field guide.
Fortunately, it was exactly that. A book filled with information about Slime Molds.

I like that it has a glossary in the back for confusing words, an index to search, and a list of references for future reading (For those molds that catch oh-so-much attention.)

Overall I cannot find enough praise for the book. Clearly written, lavishly illustrated with exquisite line-drawings, and even the luxury of coloured plates! My three criticisms below can only be seen in the context of lavish praise which this volume richly deserves.

However...........

1. Chaper 6. Classification. Pages 70-71.

The classification diagram is fine. But it would have been very helpful to mention the class, division and kingdom in which myxomcetes belong. Thus enabling the reader to appreciate the place of Myxomycetes in the tree of all earthly life.

2. Chapter 6. Identification. Pages 72ff.

The novice's efforts to itentify a slime mould would be greatly assisted by taking one step back, before presenting the excellent dichotomous trees. We need an acid test to decide whether what is before our eyes is indeed a slime mould, and not e.g. a lichen, fungus, moss..... It is pointless to apply the dichotomous (how I love that word!) tests to something which is not in fact a slime mould at all!

2. Chapter 6. Descriptions (names). Pages 87ff.

As a matter of passionately held principle I object to the odious practice of adding discoveres' names to the scientific names of species. As the authors will be aware, there are strongs movement to put an end to this appalling habit which -

a. Detracts from the scientific objectivity of the naming scheme, by obtrusive name-dropping. Imagine the ridicule resulting from the spread of this practice to other sciences, where we might well stumble upon the ...

electron (Thompson) Milligan, neutron Chadwick neutrino (Yukawa) Dirac

b. Leads to such ugly and unfelicitous expressions as....

Trichia varia (Persoon) Persoon

.....surely a case of the tail wagging the dog!

c. Adds nothing to the intrinsic nature of the species. Presumably Physarella oblongata would still have existed, exactly as it now is, even if it had never been identified by (Berkley & Curtis) Morgan! Or indeed before any human beings evolved!

To avoid continual irritation I have typ-exed out all mention of discoverers' names in my copy of this otherwise splendid book!