November's Record of the Month!

November’s Record of the Month is an observation of a False Puffball (Enteridium lycoperdon) by Nathan Fortunato. False Puffballs are one of several types of slime mold found in our area. Although they resemble fungi, slime molds are actually amoeboid protozoans. They spend much of their lives in the multinucleated plasmodial stage, moving around like amoeba and engulfing bacteria, fungi, and other microscopic particles. During the sporangial stage of life, a fruiting body forms and spores are released. Nathan not only did a great job photographing the sporangium, but also included a micrograph of the spores. Very cool!

Thanks to everyone for helping us meet our goal of 30,000 records by the end of the year! Your contributions are truly appreciated. Keep up the great work!

You can view November’s Record of the Month at:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2396787

Posted on December 14, 2015 07:29 PM by tortuga_rapido