Scanning electron micrograph of two beginning spore towers of the slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum. Slime moulds are a curious division of plants with many of the characteristics of animals. They consist of a slow-moving mass of amoeboid protoplasm, which engulfs particles of solid food which it encounters. They reproduce however by spores, shed from a spore tower, produced by a vegetative body called the plasmodium. The micrograph shows amoebae streaming & gathering to the sites of the spore towers. The majority of slime moulds are saprophytes, feeding on dead or decaying organic matter. Magnification: x500 at 10x8 inch size.