''Physarum aeneum'' is a

slime mould Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic organisms with a life cycle that includes a free-living single-celled stage and the formation of spores. Spores are often produced in macroscopic mu ...

species from the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Physarida Physarales is an order of Amoebozoa in the class Myxomycetes. It contains three families, the Didymiaceae, the Lamprodermataceae, and the Physaraceae. Physarales was circumscribed by Thomas Huston Macbride Thomas Huston Macbride (July 31, 184 ...

. It is one of a few slime moulds mainly common in the tropics and subtropics.

Characteristics

The

plasmodium ''Plasmodium'' is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of ''Plasmodium'' species involve development in a blood-feeding insect host which then injects parasites into a vert ...

of ''Physarum aeneum'' is black. The

plasmodiocarp A plasmodiocarp is a special form of fruit bodies of slime moulds. It is produced if the plasmodium concentrates during the fructification and pull back into the venetion of the plasmodium, from which the fruit body is created. The fruit body trac ...

fruit bodies The sporocarp (also known as fruiting body, fruit body or fruitbody) of fungi is a multicellular structure on which spore-producing structures, such as basidia or asci, are borne. The fruitbody is part of the sexual phase of a fungal life cyc ...

are mostly expanded over several centimetres and amasses in groups, which can be produced simple, branched or cancellate. They are pink to brown, light olive, grey or bronze-coloured, and have a shiny or iridescent surface and a diameter from 0.3 to 0.4 mm. The plasmodiocarps are first often surrounded by unstiped, nearly round

sporangia A sporangium (; from Late Latin, ) is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a single cell or can be multicellular. Virtually all plants, fungi, and many other lineages form sporangia at some point in their life cy ...

. The membranous

hypothallus In true slime molds (myxogastria), lichens, and in species of the family Clavicipitaceae, the hypothallus is the layer on which the fruit body sits, lying in contact with the substrate. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek root ''hypó'' ("u ...

is barely larger than the plasmodiocarp and dark brown to darkish. The

peridium The peridium is the protective layer that encloses a mass of spores in fungi. This outer covering is a distinctive feature of gasteroid fungi. Description Depending on the species, the peridium may vary from being paper-thin to thick and rubber ...

is double-layered: the outer layer, which occasionally features lime tubercles, is rough, gristly, wrinkled and shiny to faint, and the membranous inner layer is iridescent. The reticular, dense

capillitium Capillitium (pl. capillitia) is a mass of sterile fibers within a fruit body interspersed among spores. It is found in Mycetozoa (slime molds) and gasteroid fungi of the fungal subdivision Agaricomycotina The subdivision Agaricomycotina, also kn ...

is composed of transparent strands, which connect the small, rotund to angular, light yellow to medium brown, occasionally whitish-coloured lime tubercles. The

spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, f ...

s are in diameter 7 to 9 (rarely 6 to 10)

µm The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American spelling), also commonly known as a micron, is a unit of length in the International System of Unit ...

and are nearly smooth to finely spiky and in the mass brown, individually pale purple or purple brown in transmitted light, occasionally groups of bigger, darker warts are found on them.

Habitat

''Physarum aeneum'' is native in North America, on the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

and in South America. A single find exists in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

.Chin-Hui Liu & Chao-Hsuan Chung:''Myxomycetes Of Taiwan VII: Three New Records Of Physarum'' In: Taiwania 38: pp.91-98, 1993 The species populates deadwood and leaf. On pile of light brown leaves they often produce larger colonies of conspicuous, dark brown meshworks.

Classification

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

was collected in 1896 or 1897 on

Dominika Dominika is the female version of Dominic. Notable people with the name include: * Dominika Červenková (born 1988), Czech rhythmic gymnast * Dominika Chorosińska (born 1978), Polish actress * Dominika Cibulková (born 1989), Slovak tennis player ...

palm leaves The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees. ...

, first described as a variety of '' Physarum murinum'' in 1898 by

Arthur Lister Arthur Hugh Lister (1830–1908) was a wine merchant and botanist, known for his research on slime molds. Life Lister was born in Upton House, Upton, Essex. He was the youngest son of Joseph Jackson Lister, a brother of the celebrated Joseph Lis ...

and grouped into a separate species in 1903 by

Robert Elias Fries (Klas) Robert Elias Fries (11 July 1876, Uppsala – 29 January 1966, Stockholm), the youngest son of Theodor Magnus Fries (1832–1913) and grandson of Elias Magnus Fries(1794–1878) and an expert on mushrooms. A Swedish botanist who was a mem ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2089371 Myxogastria