Cryptic Wonders: enchanting slime moulds and other hidden gems

In 2010 I started photographing and collecting slime moulds (myxomycetes) in the tall wet eucalypt forest that surrounds my home at Black Sugarloaf, Birralee in Northern Tasmania. I knew virtually nothing about them and never imagined that I would still be searching for them all these years later, let alone finding numerous 'new' species, and …

Tasmaniomyxa umbilicata, a new genus and species of myxomycete from Tasmania

Tasmaniomyxa umbilicata was one of the first species of slime mould I photographed in 2010. It was on a small stump on 'big tree track', where I have seen it every year for the past 13. It is a very common species here and in the southeastern mainland of Australia with one record from New …