Missouri post-drought hike, burrowing beetle—September backlog continues.

Man I’ve got a lot of images, as it turns out, from fall 2012. I thought since I skipped hiking for almost 3 months during the heat wave/drought that it wouldn’t be a big deal to get caught up! But it is!

This beetle was right in the middle of the trail, trying like heck to burrow into hard-packed dirt. He wouldn't stop moving so it was difficult to get a good shot of him. Thanks to the help of an entomologist pal, I now know it is an earth-boring dung beetle--a species of Bolbocerosoma. They are not uncommon, but spend most of their time in underground burrows up to 35" deep. Pretty industrious for a little beetle less than 1" long. They provision their larvae with food such as dung, carrion and leaf litter, like any good parent. 

I really wanted to give it a last name too, but after looking up many species I could not say with certainty what this one was. Many identifying features I did not capture.



Below, you can see the little tracks in a circle he’d made, going around and around, trying to burrow.





Above, maple seeds on a log that for some reason looks like a litho print.



Another one of those genius natural compositions. Three gem-studded puffballs with a carefully-placed maple seed (not by me. I just showed up).



Above, the tip of a comb tooth (Hericium coralloides). Pure white when young and fresh, this one is past its prime and would be sour if you ate it. That doesn't make it any less compelling a subject. Dragons, claws, fractals, paws.



A clear pool after some rain finally fell, Sept. 2012.

The backlog logjam continues—here’s the BABY BOX TURTLE I’ve been holding out on.

But first, a pair of gem-studded puffballs, Lycoperdon perlatum, with infant in moss. Each of the little spines are made up of about five strands of surface fuzz, clumped together. As these puffballs age they get a puckered tip which eventually splits open so the spores can spew forth. The surface is very delicate and the tiny gems rub off very easily.



Next, a gratuitous shot of some squirrels doing something. It might have been some kind of territorial stand-off, or something friendlier.



Now for the good part.

You know how when you go for a hike you almost always come upon a nice box turtle? And how you have to count the ridges on one of the scutes to see how old it is? And how they always seem to be between 12 and 16 years old?   

Well, they might be a lot older than that, but after a point, when a turtle has maxed out on size, the ridges are so close together as to be indistinguishable. The "scutes" are the vaguely hexagonal-shaped sections of their shells--little kids always draw them when they draw turtles. As the turtle grows the shell expands, and each year adds another ridge, like the growth rings of a tree. Past a certain age, though, the ridges aren't very obvious. And it's not a precise gauge, as turtles in captivity who don't hibernate can put on two ridges a year.

Various sources report that box turtles can live 25-30 years, and their life expectancy can be much longer in the wild (!).

Once I found one that was about half the size of the ones I usually find, and his scute-annuli said he was about six or seven years old.

I have said to more than one of my hiking pals, “How come you never see baby box turtles? Why do we only find these standard-sized adults?” Well, I don’t have anything interesting on that (except reading here and there that baby box turtles are seldom seen because they are small and secretive), but I finally did find a baby box turtle! I mean, REALLY a baby! Like, he had probably hatched that morning! As in, mere hours ago! Maybe ONE hour!



Walked right past it ten minutes earlier (hopefully not this close)! Women’s size 7-1/2, for scale.





I am not a big girl. On this day in early May, my thumbnail measured 9/16” long. That would make this baby box turtle shell about 1-1/4” long. You should look at that on a ruler now.



Imagine being so tiny a blade of grass is something to consider.



Young box turtles don’t develop a hinge on their plastron until they’re four or five years old. Wonder why.

If I hadn't lost my mind with delight (and only had about 10 minutes because I had to be somewhere--big mistake when on a hike) I might have taken the time to look at its hind toes. Missouri only has two kinds of box turtles: Ornate and Three-toed. I could have figured it out, I just know it!



Yep, a baby box turtle! Look at it!

Mushroom foray assortment, Sept. 17

Yellow fairy cups, Bisporella citrina.
These are only about 1/8” across, from a little distance they just look like a vague yellow something on a log.

Mycena haematopus

Plum-colored lovelies.
These are all over the place, at this stage they’re a beautiful soft frosted purple, with a “bloom” on them like grapes. Some great common names: blood-foot Mycena, bleeding fairy helmet, the burgundydrop bonnet, or the bleeding Mycena. All the common names (and the Latin specific epithet) refer to the purple-red juice they exude from the stem when crushed. They lose the purple color as they age, fading to tan.

            
(L, above) Fairy fingers, Clavaria vermicularis, more evidence of fairies. These are about 3/16th of an inch thick (kind of big for the fairies I know).

(R, above) Gem-studded puffball, Lycoperdon perlatum. The surface texture is very delicate and rubs off at the slightest touch.

 
Very young chicken-of-the-woods, Laetiporus sulphureus. This wonderful cloud-like formation will expand into overlapping fans of zoned orange above, bright smooth clear yellow below.
It’s fall, it’s mushroom season in a big way, I can barely keep up with all the mushrooms out there now.

More mushrooms, Sept. 25 foray assortment

Hygrocybe sp.

A Waxy Cap. This one is unusually pristine, as they are often wet and a little slimy so they almost always have stuff stuck to them.



I don’t know what this is, but I know what I like, and I like this.

Whatever this mushroom is, it’s about 5-6” across, and has beautiful ruffles and scallops. It looks like suede, draped over something rounded. Now I'm kicking myself for not examining it even more closely. What were the gills like? What about the view from below?

I have to admit that I often get so enchanted with the shapes and colors that I lose interest in finding out what they are. I probably shouldn’t say that out loud.
*Edit: I hardly ever do that anymore so I don't have to kick myself later.

Laccaria amethystina

This luscious purple mushroom is not very common around here. Too bad.



A young puffball, Lycoperdon echinatum. Before I knew about these I had assumed they were L. perlatum, but the whole surface is covered with short hairs, not organized little knobs like L. perlatum.

Mushroom foray assortment, Sept. 18

I just got to keep slamming these up here or I'll never get caught up! The woods are just loaded now, when we hike we don't get more than 50 feet in 1/2 an hour, looking at stuff, taking pictures.

Polyporus alveolaris, Hexagonal-pored polypore

Lycoperdon perlatum, Gem-studded puffball

I really appreciate whoever keeps running up ahead of me, arranging these lovely compositions. Pretty sure it's fairies.

Lepiota cristata

I kept seeing these little mushrooms and kept ignoring them, thinking they were another impossible-to-identify little something, until I stopped and got my face up on them, and then they became beautiful.

Inonotus dryadeus, "Weeping Conk"

That's some wacked-out fungus! Young ones "exude amber-colored droplets." Yes, they do.

Mycophagy!

A slug having a really good time. This would be like you or me lying face-first on a 6-foot cake.

I'm finding all this stuff, all these mushrooms, all these creatures, everything in this blog, within 5 miles of my home. How? Because mushrooms are everywhere. I've said it before and I'll say it again.