Development of a Myxomycete Photoguide as a Teaching Tool for Microbial Taxonomy

Recently, web-based identification guides have been developed to aid modern taxonomists in identifying organisms. Unfortunately, these guides can only be used wherever Internet access is available. Thus, these cannot often be brought directly to the field for quick and easy identification of any collected specimens. Since we believe that field experience is necessary for any students of biology or microbiology, we developed a photoguide on the myxomycetes we collected from Lubang Island, Occidental Mindoro, Philippines. This photoguide is intended to aid both classroom and laboratory learning of a specific group of eukaryotic microoganisms, the plasmodial slime molds or myxomycetes. It provides a quick visual aid in the identification of myxomycetes found in Lubang Island, but may also be present in any other terrestrial forest areas of the country and of the world.