60 hours in the life of a Slime Mould (View on Black)

I spotted the beginning of this slime mould under one of the "refugia" bits of wood in my garden. I have been interested to see that there has been a series of different slime moulds on each of the three pieces of wood at separate times. This one, I noted, was not one I had seen before, so resolved to follow it through its stages. This also involved going outside regularly and removing slugs from the wood and overnight, I balanced it on a windowsill, to minimise the chance of the Slime Mould being eaten before I had my series. I also woke up at 0400hrs during the first night, so was pleased to go outside and monitor the progress. I took photos mostly 2-3 hourly when changes were obviously happening and less frequently towards the end. I was lucky to remove a very large Leopard Slug before it could feast, but finally allowed a Large Yellow Slug to finish it off at the end. Moisture loving springless Springtails, Neanura muscorum were constantly nibbling away, but without apparent effect. This whole episode lasted 60 hours. I was slightly disappointed that the mass deliquesced rather than erupting into a frothy mass of intricate spores! The only annoyance is one of my shots taken where I accidently had the wood upside down. (Third row down, left hand photo) Just a minor irritation!

Most photos taken with Canon 550D and 60mm macro lens.