Sphaerocarpos update 3/17

All of my Sphaerocarpos specimens have grown very rapidly!

Here is a pic of one. As you can see, it is no longer yellow. Evidently, being moved to a brighter place has increased its health. It's not very obvious in the pic, but my specimens have also decreased the size of their sexual balloons and covered themselves in a network of green threads (I believe they are protonemata, though possibly of mosses). Their thalli are also now no longer tightly appressed to the ground, instead fanning out into the air in all directions. The plants now look like corals covered in spider gossamer.

The balloon shrinkage was not surprising - after all I'd already read long ago that female Sphaerocarpos rapidly reduce their balloon mass and both sexes become unnaturally healthy/fastgrowing when in captivity.

I wish I was capable of such phenotypic plasticity. Unnatural health is so cool...

Nyctoporis survived!

My contact reports that all eighteen Nyctoporis carinata larvae showed up alive and well despite the coldness of the post office.

Also this is unrelated but most of the mosses in my cup have been looking increasingly pallid. I assume my recent overwatering tendency has been harming them. The Asterella californica specimen, on the other hand, seems to be doing well and appears to be very slowly making some new branches. I am not sure whether the Asterella is actually growing, but it certainly seems to be.

No more nyctopores

 I have sent away all my Nyctoporis carinata larvae! I now have no captive arthropods. Here are some pics of one shortly before sending it off in the mail. By the way, several died since my last count, so instead of 21 there are now 18. Intriguingly, some of the most small and/or injured larvae survived.

Here is a blurry vid of their defensive flopping and jerky gait. In dirtless containers they can start chain reactions of increasingly panicked flopping when one larva accidentally collides with another. Interestingly large larvae barely engage in peristalsis when they walk, unlike small larvae.

Sphaerocarpos update 3/4

 Still alive but concerningly somewhat yellowish. Moved it to brighter area today in hopes of de-yellowing it.

Asterella/moss update 3/1

 I accidentally let them dry out again last night. Upon rehydration the Asterella was still green but its "orb" had turned brown. The mosses still seem fine.