slime mold slime mold or slime fungus, a heterotrophic organism once considered a fungus but later classified with the Protists. In a recent classification system based on the analysis of nucleic acid sequences (genetic material), slime molds were classified into a main group called eukaryotes (or eukaryotes), which includes plants and animals. There are two groups of slime molds, the plasmodial slime molds of the phylum (division) Myxomycota and the cellular slime molds of Acrasiomycota. Slime molds have complex life cycles that can be divided into a mobile animalistic phase, in which growth and feeding take place, and a vegetal, immobile, reproductive phase. The mobile phase is commonly found under rotten trunks and damp leaves, where cellulose is abundant. It consists of the cellular slime molds of solitary, amoeba-like cells, and the Myxomycota of a coenocytic (multinucleated) mass of protoplasm called the plasmodium, which moves slowly by amoeboid motion. Plasmodia often reach several inches in diameter and are often colorful. Both types ingest solid food particles using a process called phagocytosis (see endocytosis). They feed on living microorganisms, such as bacteria and yeast, as well as decaying vegetation. Before entering the reproductive phase, the plasmodium moves to a drier and better lit place, such as the upper part of a trunk. In amoeba-like, or cellular, slime molds, up to 125,000 individual cells clump and coalesce together, forming a multicellular mass called a pseudoplasmodium that resembles a snail and crawls before settling in a place with acceptable heat and brightness. plasmodium or pseudoplasmodium transforms into one or more reproductive structures called fruiting bodies, each consisting of a stalk topped with a spore-producing capsule that resembles the reproductive structures of many fungi. Eventually the cellulose-walled spores are released and dispersed; they germinate in humid places, releasing naked cells. In a typical plasmodial slime mold, germinated spores go through an amoeboid or flagellated swimming stage, followed by sexual fusions and cell divisions. The diploid amoeboid cell (i.e. the zygote) grows and its nucleus divides repeatedly, resulting in the formation of a new plasmodium. Under adverse conditions a plasmodium can transform into a hard, dry, inactive mass called a sclerotium. Resistant to drying, it becomes a plasmodium again when favorable conditions return. In the case of cellular slime molds, each released spore becomes a single amoeba, feeding individually until the starving cells release a chemical signal that causes them to aggregate into a new pseudoplasmodium, and the process is repeated.