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Myxozoa (etymology: Greek: μύξα myxa "slime" or "mucus" [2] + thematic vowel o + ζῷον zoon "animal" [3]) is a subphylum of aquatic cnidarian animals – all obligate parasites. It contains the smallest animals ever known to have lived.
The term plasmodium, introduced by Leon Cienkowski, [2] usually refers to the feeding stage of slime molds; these are macroscopic mycetozoans. [3]The multinucleate developmental stages of some intracellular parasites, namely Microsporidia (now in Fungi) and Myxosporidia (now in Cnidaria), former cnidosporans, are also sometimes called plasmodia.
Physarum polycephalum, an acellular [1] slime mold or myxomycete popularly known as "the blob", [2] is a protist with diverse cellular forms and broad geographic distribution. The “acellular” moniker derives from the plasmodial stage of the life cycle : the plasmodium is a bright yellow macroscopic multinucleate coenocyte shaped in a ...
Slime molds contribute to the decomposition of dead vegetation; some are parasitic. Most slime molds are terrestrial and free-living, typically in damp shady habitats such as in or on the surface of rotting wood. Some myxogastrians and protostelians are aquatic or semi-aquatic. The phytomyxea are parasitic, living inside their plant hosts.
Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries described numerous slime moulds as Myxogasteres in 1829. [5] Species in the class Myxogastria are colloquially known as plasmodial or acellular slime moulds. Some consider the Myxogastria a separate kingdom , with an unsettled phylogeny because of conflicting molecular and developmental data.
The (left) magnetic slime robot inside a model of a stomach, (right) the robot by itself. A magnetic slime robot [1] is a self-healing soft robot made up of polyvinyl alcohol, borax and neodymium magnet particles. It was co-created by professor Li Zhang of Chinese University of Hong Kong. [2]
The parasite eggs are passed with the feces of the host, which then are eaten by a terrestrial snail (first intermediate host). The fluke matures into a juvenile stage in the snail, which in an attempt to protect itself excretes the parasites in "slime-balls". The "slime-balls" are then consumed by ants (second intermediate hosts).
The sporangial or aethalial phase of this slime mould is spherical, elongate or globular, 50 to 80 mm, and is at first highly glutinous in appearance, resembling small slug eggs. Later a smooth white and silvery surface develops, which eventually splits to expose a brown spore mass beneath. [ 2 ]