Protostelia
Protosteliida
Myxogastria
Liceida
Echinosteliida
Trichiida
Stemonitida
Physarida
Dictyostelia
Dictyosteliida
Slime mould (or slime mold) is a broad term often referring to roughly 6 groups of Eukaryotes. The taxonomy is still in flux. Originally, they were considered Fungi, but now they have been split into various groups:
Myxogastria: plasmodial or syncytial slime moulds,
Protostelia: smaller plasmodial slime moulds,
Dictyosteliida: cellular slime moulds,
Acrasidae: similar life style to Dictyostelids, but of uncertain taxonomy
Plasmodiophorids: i.e. club root disease of cabbages,
Labyrinthulomycetes: slime nets
The Myxogastria, Protosteli, and Dictyosteliida make up the group Mycetozoa. The mycetozoan groups all fit into the unikont supergroup Amoebozoa, whereas the others fit into various bikont groups. Slime moulds feed on microorganisms in decaying vegetable matter. They can be found in the soil, on lawns, in the forest. They begin life as amoeba like cells. These amoeba then grow into plasmodia which contain many nuclei without cell membranes between them, which can become many cm in size. One variety is often seen as a slimy network of yellow fibres in rotting logs. The amoeba and the plasmodia engulf microorganisms. The plasmodium grows in an amorphous fasion with much cytoplasmic streaming and can even travel. When the food supply wanes, the plasmodium will migrate to the surface of its substrate and transform into rigid fruiting bodies. The fruiting bodies are what are commonly seen. They look superficially like fungi or moulds but are not related. These will then release spores which hatch into amoeba to begin the life cycle again.