In traditional systematics, the Dictyostelia were grouped with the acrisid amoebas in the division of mycetozoans in the kingdom of fungi. (3, 26) However, recent molecular evidence shows that none of these groups are fungi; the acrasid amoebas are members of the discicristates, while the Dictyostelia and the mycetozoans are members of the amoebozoans. (1, 18, 27, 28) Based on fruiting body architecture, the social amoebas were subdivided into three genera: the dictyostelids with unbranched or laterally branched fruiting structures, the polyspondylids with regular whorls of side branches and the acytostelids with acellular stalks.