9705464 Stephenson This project will make collections of plasmodial slime molds from soil and leaf litter from island and mainland areas in Central and South America and the Caribbean. A major question is being addressed: Are tropical slime molds more or less diverse than temperate ones? The answer to this question is likely to be very significant for biogeographic and biodiversity studies of other organisms. In addition, beetles associated with the slime molds of tropical forests will be collected, because very little is known about the interaction between the slime molds and these beetles. The U. S. National Fungus Collections and their database will allow provision of the results of this project over the WWW. Specialists from Costa Rica and Mexico and their students will be involved in the research, as will a number of U.S. undergraduates.
