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From: winalski@psw.enet.dec.com (Paul S. Winalski)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Slime mold???
Message-ID: <23353@shlump.lkg.dec.com>
Date: 11 Jun 91 00:29:13 GMT
References: <1991Jun10.195758.16977@netcom.COM>
Sender: newsdaemon@shlump.lkg.dec.com
Reply-To: winalski@psw.enet.dec.com (Paul S. Winalski)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 18

In article <1991Jun10.195758.16977@netcom.COM>,
doug@netcom.COM (Doug Merritt) writes:
|>
|>Something that *looks* like a sponge sometimes appears out of a crack
|>in the tile in my bathroom (moist environment), and shows indications of
|>having moved up to 6 inches laterally overnight. This has happened twice
|>now, and I want to know if I should call an exorcist or not. :-)
|>
|>The body was about 2 inches wide & deep the first time, and this
|>time was about 2 inches wide but maybe 5 inches long. It looks very
|>much like a sponge (off yellow, dotted with tiny holes etc), but is
|>rather crumbly when it's cleaned away.

Yup, sounds like a slime mold all right.  They start out stringy, slimy,
and shiny yellow.  When they have formed spores, they get to the spongy,
crumbly state you saw.

--PSW