The slime mold changing from amoeba to fruiting bodies

 What do you think this is？　Doesn't it look like a music instrument “maracas”, even for a moment?

Actually, this is a fruiting body of the slime mold, Trichia sp. that has just seen the light of day.

I will explain its growth process from the beginning.

 This is a plasmodia (amoeba) of Trichia sp. emerged on the surface of a large decayed fallen tree. It is creepy, isn't it? 

 I have already known this fallen tree before, but it's getting colder these days, so I thought the slime molds would no longer emerge on the decayed tree.  It is probably an oak tree. Since this fallen tree is large, even though the same slime mold is concerned, various growth stages of a slime mold can be observed at the same time.

The amoeba is turning into a white lump gradually.

Then, it has turned into irregular shaped small lumps. I'm not sure what it is at this stage. 

In the next stage, they changed into a white glossy spherical shape. These seem viscid.

 As time goes on, based on my observation, 2 or 3 days passed, this white spherical shape turned yellow. They look like small eggs of a insect. 

The very short stem is slightly visible at the bottom of yellow sphere, isn't it?

 When I first observed,  I thought yellow spheres above would transform into the following club-shape.  However, no matter how many days pass, the shape remained the same except that the yellow sphere turned to vermilion color.

　Thus, I have come to think that yellow spheres and club-shaped fruiting bodies are different species after all.

 This photo shows two species of Myxomycetes emerged on the decayed tree. 

Since the two species emerged closely each other, I initially thought the upper ones would transform into the lower ones. 

 Look at closely, the upper fruiting bodies occurred very densely. Compared to that,  the lower fruiting bodies very sparse.  If both of them are the same species, that's impossible.

There are at least two types of fruiting bodies among Trichia sp.. 　
One gives rise to sessile, densely crowded fruiting bodies, the other gives rise to stalked, rarely sessile, gregarious to crowded fruiting bodies.

This is a close-up phote of the latter one and these fruiting bodies emerged upward.　

 This photo shows the latter Trichia sp. has occurred together with different slime mold Perichaena depressa. Two or more slime molds sometimes make their fruiting bodies at the same place. I think such a phenomenon is common on the decayed dead trees.

 By the way, Perichaena depressa looks like irregular shaped tiles of russet (reddish brown) color, isn't it?

I took above photos from October 27th to 31st, 2024 in a forest located at Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Last updated October 31st.