Delivered at 2008 Boston Harbor Islands
Science Symposium.
Slime molds (Myxomycota) are eukaryotes in the Amoebozoa that feed on bacteria. They have several different life-form stages including amoeboid,spore-producing fruit bodies, and plasmodia (the inspiration for the 1950’s classic thriller movie “The Blob”). There had been no previous documentation of Myxomycota from the Boston Harbor Islands. A survey was conducted in August 2007 as part of the Planetary Biodiversity Inventory of the Myxomycota in conjunction with Dr. Steve Stephenson from the University of Arkansas. In this talk I will discuss the species of myxomycetes on the Boston Harbor Islands as well as basic aspects of myxomycete biology.
