lightsinthedistance-modernlife

Yesterday was a nice day outside, and I figured it would probably be one of the last before the snow started falling. I decided to take advantage of this, and set off to find some mushrooms. (Also, it was snowing when I woke up this morning, so I was correct in my assumption. Maybe I should take up weather forecasting.) I packed some collecting supplies and set off for the nature trail near my old elementary school. It has a nice array of habitat types and gratuitous amounts of decaying logs, so I was optimistic that I would find some nice mushrooms. However, almost immediately after I stepped onto the trail, my trip turned into millipede hunting. It's just too difficult to resist turning over every decaying log I find in hopes of getting some millipedes out of it. My habit ended up paying off: I found many millipedes and collected 7 specimens from 4 separate species. It's astounding how many little critters live in decaying wood and the surrounding leaf litter. It's a mini...

That title sounds delicious, doesn't it? To clear up the confusion, I'll go ahead and post the picture now. This is the reason I searched for "oozing mycelium" on Google. I never fathomed that I would search those words. I chose a nice, sunny day last summer to go for a walk in some woods near my house (thus getting me out of the Sun while still being able to claim I spent some time outside) and found some neat stuff. The most perplexing thing I found turned out to be this fungus. The white parts you see are the mycelia of the fungus--masses of fungal roots, essentially. They spread over the substrate, and the fungus takes up nutrients through them. The substrate here is decaying wood. As for the red droplets on the fungus, I'm sort of at a loss. The closest species I've found is Hydnellum peckii , also known as the bleeding tooth fungus. The droplets of red liquid are there, sure, but that's it. I can't find any images of what the mycelia of H. peckii...

I've been reading about cicadas and entomogenous* fungi lately, which reminded me of a picture I had from back in September when I was at the field station working on my capstone project. *This is an awesome new word I learned today-- it means growing on or in the bodies of insects. I found this annual cicada, still in its larval stage, before it emerged as an adult, with fungus growing from it. I was thinking that the fungus itself might have killed it, but that's tough to say for sure. The cicada could have died before the fungus came along, of course. Still, it would be interesting if it was the fungus that killed the cicada. So many fungi associate with the roots of trees, upon which cicadas feed while they're underground. Maybe some species attack the cicadas to protect the tree. Someone should investigate that. ...but not me, currently. I'm focused on capstone for now.

Fungi are pretty important. In fact, without fungi, forests as we know them probably wouldn't exist. Why? Because fungi form mutualistic relationships with plant roots that help the plant grow. There are a couple different ways that fungi can do this, but it has the same result: aiding plant growth and stabilizing the health of the plant. Unfortunately, many people don't know about fungal-plant relationships and how important they are to the ecosystem, and fungi are shunned. Some mushrooms are considered pretty, but for the most part, fungi don't receive the recognition they deserve. Paul Stamets is working to correct this, and judging from this clip, he's doing an amazing job.

Old Man's Cave is an interesting place. It's part of Hocking Hills, an Ohio state park, and is located near Logan, Ohio. The state parks in Ohio are wonderful places to enjoy nature, find bugs, and just revel in various types of biology, and Old Man's Cave is no exception. The cave is named after a settler who lived in the cave after the Civil War, Richard Rowe. He was killed by an accidental shot from his own gun, and it's rumored that local Native Americans buried him near the Cave. Who knows if that's true or not, but it's an interesting story. Moss covers every rock around the park, and there are good amounts of lichens and bryophytes as well. While I was there, I found a lot of mushrooms. If you're a mycologist, you'll enjoy the place. Unfortunately, my mycology skills are pretty non-existent right now. I'll have to come back to the ecology and identification of these at a later date. But still, very neat, and a good variety for only a cursory g...