FINE Things No. 32

From Linda: Stickiness is a weapon some plants use to fend off hungry insects. (link)

How plants influence the honeybee caste system: workers and queens. (link)

It could be controversial, so I hesitated to post this link. "Plantwatch: weeds - appreciating the wild things on our streets. Lockdown may have given us more respect for the wild plants, and the work they do, in our urban areas." (link)

"Absolutely Barking"; Nearly everything you need to know about bark. (link)

If you've ever been hiking in the higher elevations of the Rocky Mountains or the Sierra Nevadas you may have heard a high-pitched whistle. The sound was produced by a Pika, a fluffy ball of fur about the size of a hamster, but related to a rabbit. Pikas are adapting to climate change remarkably well, contrary to many predictions. (link)

Catherine Chastain submitted this one: Ice pancakes swirl on river. (link)

Both Linda and I recommend this: Milkweed Pollination: A Series of Fortunate Events. (link)

 Jan Coyne recommended this one: Beetle parents manipulate information broadcast from bacteria in a rotting corpse. (link)

These Mites Rain Down To Save Your Strawberries | Deep Look (link)

These Face Mites Really Grow on You | Deep Look (link)

It’s not nature, except in the sense that it exploits the laws of physics. I think you’ll enjoy it.  (link)

The Contradictory Plant Known as Beefsteak Plant, Shiso, and Perilla Mint, Perilla frutescens. (link)

Emily recommended the next two:

We’ve waited for years on this news from down under and the nerds of Georgia Tech shaped the solution. Warning! Pun alert! “Box seat: scientists solve the mystery of why wombats have cube-shaped poo. Unique physiology allows the Australian marsupial to produce square-shaped feces that may aid communication.” (link)

Moths to monkeys: 503 new species identified by UK scientists. (link)

Coastal job: sand artist. Must see sand sculptures. (link)

A new study finds global ice loss is now in line with the worst-case 
scenarios of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 
Change, with ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica melting the fastest. (link)

At least 14 new North Atlantic Right whale calves have been seen
 off south-eastern US this season. (link)

The Ocean's Mysterious Vitamin Deficiency. 
A puzzling lack of thiamine is disrupting some marine ecosystems. (link)

Stinkhorns: Fungi No One Can Love?

An appeal from Dr. John Wares, president of the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Natural History.
"If you are able to give, the Friends of GMNH is still one of the most important funding resources that our Georgia Museum of Natural History has these days. In the absence of our fundraising gatherings, your donations and memberships are important to us and we will be eager to get back to regular activities when it is safe to do so."

To become a member of the Friends of GMNH, click here. 

This post first appeared in the weekly Newsletter of the Friends of GMNH and appears here courtesy of Dr. Robert Wyatt.

Stinkhorns: Fungi No One Can Love?

by Dr. Robert Wyatt

Those of us with broad interests in natural history enjoyed a stellar year for fungi in the late summer and fall of 2020.  Unusually high rainfall coupled with prolonged warm temperatures brought forth a diverse array of mycological wonders.  In my yard perhaps the most intriguing of these were the stinkhorns (Phallales), which first announced their presence to me via their putrid smell, reminiscent of decaying flesh.  And then I spied the horn, which, as the Latin name implies, looks very much like a phallus.  They certainly deserve their common name!

Phallus ravenellii with large and small flies feeding on the gleba

These interlopers arrived in mid-October but stayed around, appearing sporadically depending on weather conditions, until December.  The first wave was the largest, with perhaps as many as 100, spread across several clusters, suddenly springing up from coarse mulch applied earlier in the summer along our driveway.  Ann and I quickly identified this distinctive species as Phallus ravenellii, named "in honor" of Henry William Ravenel, a South Carolina planter and botanist who described many new species of fungi and flowering plants.  [I use quotation marks because one might wonder exactly how pleased Ravenel was to receive the dubious distinction of having a stinkhorn dubbed "Ravenel's Phallus."]
 

One of the largest clusters of Phallus ravenellii

 

In any case, this mushroom is hard to miss, reaching a height of 10 cm or more with a white, spongy stem that is hollow and a cap covered with a gray-green gelatinous gleba in which the spores are embedded.  These above ground structures last only a day or two, but more may emerge from "eggs" located just below the surface.

"Egg" of Phallus ravenellii and American carrion beetle

 

The elevation of the stalk occurs surprisingly rapidly (see time-lapse film at this link).  Every time I checked these 'shrooms, they were covered with small to large flies including fruit flies (Drosophilidae), fungus gnats (Mycetophilidae), and house flies (Muscidae) apparently enjoying the banquet of bad-smelling, but presumably tasty and nourishing, slime . Harder to see because of their ability to disappear very quickly were green and black beetles that proved to be American Carrion Beetles (Necrophila americana), which normally feed on dead and decaying animal flesh.

Necrophila americana American carrion beetle

At first I thought the flies and beetles might be dupes of the stinkhorn -- tricked into visiting by the distinctive odor and picking up and transporting spores inadvertently on their legs and bodies.  But they were regularly present and lingered as long as slime was available.  Apparently, the gleba is highly nutritious, and the spores and slime are purposely ingested by insects, which carry relatively few spores on the outside of their bodies (Tuno, 1998).  This intrepid Japanese researcher examined hundreds of fly rectums and found, on average, drosophilids harbored 35,000 to 240,000 spores, whereas muscids contained 1,680,000!  And germination of these spores was > 90%.  This would seem to answer a question posed by Roy (1994), who wondered if the attraction of flying insects was really advantageous to stinkhorns.  The latter are not pathogenic and therefore differ from the rust and smut fungi whose spores are delivered by confused flies to infect flowers of the plants she studied.  It seems likely that these insects defecate spores in areas conducive for growth of stinkhorns, spore germination is enhanced (or at least not diminished) after passage through fly digestive tracts, and spores may grow better in the nitrogen-enhanced environment that fly feces provide.
There is a further wrinkle to this story.  Recently, Teichert et al. (2012) discovered a bizarre understory tree in Brazilian rainforest that they argue is pollinated by certain nitulid and scarab beetles that ordinarily disperse spores of stinkhorns.  The odor chemistry of the foul-smelling flowers of Dugetia cadaverica (Annonaceae) involves molecules typically associated with the smells of carcasses and cheese and which are chemically similar to the characteristic earthy odors of fungi.  They conclude that this plant deceives the beetles using visual cues, such as flowers produced at ground level that resemble mushrooms, as well as olfactory ones.  [I am not making this up!]
Here are a couple more links:  (https://www.mushroomexpert.com/phallaceae.html) and (https://www.walterreeves.com/landscaping/stinkhorn-mushroom-identification-and-control/).
________________________________________
Dr. Robert Wyatt obtained his bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his doctorate from Duke University, both in Botany. He taught for two years at Texas A&M University before joining the faculty at the University of Georgia, where he was a Professor of Botany and Ecology for more than 20 years. From 1999 to 2005 Dr. Wyatt was the Executive Director of the Highlands Biological Station, an interinstitutional center of the University of North Carolina. He has won numerous awards for teaching and research, including a Guggenheim Fellowship that enabled him to produce a book entitled Ecology and Evolution of Plant Reproduction. He has trained more than 40 graduate students, received millions of dollars in research grants, and published more than 160 scientific papers.


 

FINE Things No. 31

Natural history museums could/should play a role in pandemic surveillance. Preserving specimens or tissues from species known to harbor infectious diseases can be used to help determine a pathogen’s source. (link) 

Monarch butterflies in the western United States migrate too, but to the southern California-Baja California coast, not to the mountains of central Mexico. There were 1.2 million butterflies in this western overwintering population when they were first counted in 1997. This year there were 1914. (link)

Why cats are crazy about catnip. (link to video) (Link to Article)

Tribute to the Nature Ramblers

The Nature Ramblers

cribbed from many, assembled by Tom Shelton

 

As the World Turns, The Sun Also Rises over The Good Earth

where A River Runs Through It and Where the Wild Things Are,

away from the Asphalt Jungle, Crosstown Traffic and City Lights.

For many Wild Things it's A land For All Seasons,

but Some Like it Hot and A Place in the Sun,

and move on before The Big Chill.

FINE Things No. 30

Piedmont forest floor, winter 2021.
Linda Chafin
graphite and colored pencil.
Can you identify these trees?
(Answers at end of this post.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eight simple actions that individuals can take to save insects from global declines. (link)

These FINE Things were suggested by Nature Ramblers Eugenia Thompson, Tom Shelton, Jan Coyne and Emily Carr:

A 99-million-year-old beetle shines light on the evolution of glowing insects. (link)

How dung beetles roll their food in a straight line. As they craft their humble lives from piles of manure, the insects look to the skies for direction.(link)

Figs show that nonnative species can invade ecosystems by forming unexpected partnerships. (link)

Biden's Covid-19 Plan Is Maddeningly Obvious. (link)

Conspiracy theories seem to meet psychological needs and can be almost impossible to eradicate. One remedy: Keep them from taking root in the first place. (link)

Slippery flowers help deter nectar-stealing ants. (link)

It's tough to drive a spade through compacted soil, and plant roots seem to have the same problem when growing in compacted ground. But plants are smart enough to stop pushing. How do they know when to quit? (link)

Answers to tree quiz:

Scarlet Oak leaf and acorn, Southern Red Oak leaf, Beech leaf, Pignut Hickory nut and husk.

 

FINE Things No. 29

Cranberries. An interesting account about Cranberries and other Vaccinium species. (I know - I should have included this before the holidays.) Lots of interesting information about the fruit, its history, uses and related species. (link)

The Curious Strength of a Sea Sponge's Glass Skeleton. 

FINE Things No. 28

The Georgia Museum of Natural History has been sponsoring a monthly series of "Turtle Pond Talks" on the first Monday of each month. These are aimed at a general audience and are now being offered as live Zoom virtual meetings. The next talk is Monday, January 11 at 10am. The Zoom information to participate is available here. The speaker this month is Dr. Jim Hamrick, professor emeritus at UGA (Plant Biology). His talk is "What Makes a Tree a Tree." His research has been on southeastern as well as tropical plants. This is a chance to hear the real deal!!

DNA "barcoding" reveals more hidden species, sometimes a lot more.

The evolution of sleep: 700 million years of melatonin.

Few of us have been to New Zealand, but, if you manage to visit, here is a sight you might want to see. These "glowworms" hang from the ceiling of caves and attract their prey with blue light.
A little closer to home, in northwest Alabama, there is a similar light display by relatives of the New Zealand insects. It's in Dismals Canyon. More information about the insects and tours is available here.

Jellyfish swim by creating an invisible "wall" of water and then pushing against it.

Will global warming make animals darker-or lighter?

Dismay greets end of U.S. effort to curb devastating forest pest.

Unexpected gorilla snacking behaviors make scientists question what we know about early humans. Gorillas' eating habits don't match their tooth specializations, raising questions about determining early human diets from fossil records. 

 

Rising temperatures are altering the sex ratio of sea turtles. Researchers are exploring one possible fix.

I do a lot of random browsing on the internet - it's fun to suddenly stumble across something that is totally unknown (to me, anyway). This blog post is one such example. It has two terms that were new to me: xerochastic and hygrochastic. Are you curious? Go ahead. One click will satisfy your quest for knowledge.

"Murder Hornets" were in the news this year and people were anxious about them becoming the next terror insect. Here's a video showing one approach to dealing with unwanted hornet nests.

That's all for this week.

FINE Things No. 27

What I've read: 

WORLD OF WONDERS: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Milkweed Books, 2020.