Sphaerocarpos spontaneously materializes in my angiosperm tray

 

Was it originally a sporecluster buried in Santa Fe Dam's dunes? Or was it one from the Sphaerocarpos I cultured last year, dormant until a piece of lint floated it into my tray? Who knows!

Also of note is the fact that its bubblesacs are not deflated; apparently getting them to stay swollen in captivity isn't too hard if the humidity is low enough. But I transplanted it into a sealed cup (so the mosses don't smother it) so I expect they'll deflate soon. Whatever?

Tray 12/21

 

[Yawn!]

Nonvisual flight in a chironomid?!

 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152884

Visually unmediated flight is one of those things one expects insects to evolve regularly but which seems to be almost nonexistent for some reason (even Tenebrionidae have larger eyes in flighted than flightless species, said some paper I'm too lazy to refind).

Addendum, 12/21: I also suspect some (perhaps even most) epigean Tipulidae may be capable of flying more or less correctly if experimentally blinded.

Tray 12/17

 

Tray 12/16

Still not much has happened besides growth (I bet they won't be much interestinger during flower time either). Also yes yes I know the leaf tips are getting burnt, I bet the tray evaporates water too fast.

Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area tray 12/10

 

A few new seedlings of various spp. exited dormancy and germinated, but nothing detectably interesting happened. The leaves of all the plants got bigger, and some jelly dot algae (domeshaped as oppposed to spherical, probably Nostocales) showed up, but that's about it.

Also, remember the "long cotyledon" plant from that other post? It looks like this now. Note the suspicious resemblance of the mature cotyledons to the mature true leaves.

I'm now highly confident it's the suncup Camissoniopsis bistorta. Google Scholar indicates that nothing has been written on the adaptive function of that genus's cotyledon longness, but I suspect it has something to do with competition and/or resource limitation.

If things work the way I suspect they do, then "make its preexisting photosynthetic organs longer" is a way less resource-intensive strategy than "rapidly kill them off and grow new ones" and/or allows it to grow hastily-but-sloppily during a part of its life cycle where haste is more important than quality. Perhaps they help it race against the clock to grow a deep taproot before the ground dries up? After all, it (and micrantha) seem to be far more tolerant of poorly-water-holding habitats than most other native microflowers in my area.

Also note one of the hairless Riccia I transplanted from Bonelli Park making a cameo (I really ought to create a blog label for the marchantiophyte).

Iridescent fernthing plasticity part 2

 

Note the long gemmifers (gemma-bearing "stalks").

Succulent update

 Pleased 2 report: annual micro-Crassulaceae can, in fact, grow roots out of their leaves.

Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area sand tray, 12/1/2022

 

Note the low density of the non-succulent angiosperms. I bet they're doing that bet-hedging thing where only a fraction of the seeds germinate each year (I didn't refrigerate my tray this year so cues for 100% of seeds to sprout may not be present).

I also tossed some native crystalworts in there and they're growing (this one is Riccia trichocarpa if my key can be trusted).

Its photograph's blurry until you click on it, for some reason.

Someone made a meme video about them?!

 

Golly gee!

I feel... weirdly honored?

More of aridland wildflower tray

Those big grasslike things in my last post about these have metamorphosed, developing spikes. Highly confident they're Navarettia hamata because no other angiosperm from Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area (where I collected the sand) seems to have spikes like that. The small spineless grasslike thing in the middle of this pic seems to be Linanthus dianthiflorus.

The succulents have gotten bigger but seem to have done nothing of much interest. Despite being annuals, they seem to be capable of asexually reproducing via stem fragments and detached leaves. I wonder if I can perennialize them by forcing them to regen from leaves too frequently for flower production (and thus blooming-related programmed death) to occur? After all, Physcomitrium has been perennialized in a very similar way (namely, being repeatedly ground to a pulp so often it can't make sporophytes). Also, I suspect that at least some of them may be invasive Crassula like C. tillaea.

Leaf propagation'll be a pain though. The leaves don't detach easily, and the stem is prone to snapping. In any case, at least one of my detached leaves is getting bigger, so fingers crossed!

Whatever this (and the unidentified thallus I mentioned Nov. 10) was have both died of dehydration. Several of the grassy spineleaves also show purple pigment as a result of heat stress. Look, I'm life-threateningly depressed, okay?

I also yanked out the probable Erodium on an impulse. Wish I kept it alive long enough for it to mature, but my depression seems to be making me uncontrollably impulsive.

Also this thing popped up a while ago. My god, those cotyledons are huge! (The cotyledons are the largest leaves in the pic if you 're wondering.) They look eerily similar to Pholistoma membranaceum cotyledons but the true leaves look different from that species. Some other Boraginaceae seem to have similar seedlings; I've tentatively ruled out various Cryptantha, Phacelia, Emmenanthe, Pectocarya, Amsinckia, Eucrypta, Borago, Heliotropium by searching various websites and looking at whether the cotyledons and/or true leaves look the same as the ones in my photograph.

Interestingly, the oval things at the tips of the cotyledon have remained more or less the same size as they were during germination whereas the rest has gotten steadily longer. The long part's the petiole I think?

(Permanently) noniridescent gametophyte morphospecies gets another glamour shot

 

I just love the way this morphospecies seems to be permanently solitary whenever it hasn't been injured in a way that makes it produce additional meristems.

Solitary specimens also seem to stop growing once they reach Harmonia axyridis size, but seemingly make no attempt to reproduce unless I slice them in half or otherwise injure them.

Perhaps these habits may imply that it isn't biologically adapted to having a long gametophyte lifespan and that my gametophytes only became longlived because they're a unisexual clone (in other words: I suspect that in the wild the gametophytes of this sp. quickly fertilize each other and then die of fertilization-induced programmed death, as is usual for ferns). I read in a paper somewhere that most if not all ferns develop unnaturally long-lived gametophytes if artificially prevented from producing a sporophyte, and that most if not all such gametophytes can be clonally propagated via fission.

Three papers on the subject of insect "tameness"

I've always wondered why aphids have a tendency to completely ignore predators right next to them and why aposematic insects are often as easily frightenable as nonaposematic ones. My curiosity has been sated!

The economics of escape behaviour in the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum

Predator foolhardiness and morphological evolution in 17-year cicadas (Magicicada spp.)

Hidden in plain orange: aposematic coloration is cryptic to a colorblind insect predator

Bonus:

De novo origins of multicellularity in response to predation

(Now I'm really tempted to mess around with mutants of my own. I wonder what kinds of weird shapes/behaviors I can selectively breed into Asterella.)

Phenotypic plasticity of the iridescent fernthing

Here are some specimens grown under relatively high lighting. The iridescence is of course nearly gone, but also note that the "leaf" edges are both smoother and more evenly gemmiferous.

I also noticed an uninvited angiosperm sprout just germinated in the cup the ferns pictured above were in. Its curly leaves stop being curly when it's unwilted.

Imperfect photo time: more phenotypic plasticity! The first one below was so close to being perfect but the color's slightly off and there's a bit of subtle fisheye distortion.

Aridland microflora I collected as seeds last spring

 I'm too sad to write a proper caption but the wavy-leaved one in the first pic appears to be invasive Erodium and the succulents appear to be Crassula connata. There's also a tiny thallus in the last pic.

Halloween update

 

The Asterella continues to rot so I have cut it into pieces (to excise the brown parts) and lowered the ventilation. I suspect the deventilation will make things worse but I guess it's still worth a try?

Not like I can think of any better ideas.

Edit: had a better idea, namely not lowering the ventilation. I'll give it a few more months of high ventilation now that the air temps have dropped; if it still doesn't start growing at low air temps then I'll deventilate it. Having a control variable is always delicious.

Edit 2: even better idea. What if I put two in a lidless container and two in a sealed container? Twice the control variable!

Hi I have low mental health and am very unemployed

 I'm not sure how much longer I'll live so if I suddenly stop replying to messages from everyone it is possible I may have died.

...Alternatively, it is possible that I simply didn't see the message. Let's hope I don't get prematurely labeled dead as a result of forgetting to check messages. That would be, well, a bit embarrassing.

I'm generally least likely to forget to check messages on Instagram, Discord, and Gmail these days. Also even though I am basically running out of will to live this is not a suicide note (I really, really hate being dead).

Bye take care!

And don't forget: psychologists/therapists these days are not very trustworthy! There's a ton of well-respected scientists out there who are publishing psych papers containing easily detectable fallacies. Here's one.

Throwback: low effort zonatus macros

 

Unfortunately I can no longer find any of the specimens I released. I hope they didn't die.

Stop dying on meeeeeee Asterella

 

Your soil's no longer sopping wet! Why haven't you started growing alreadyyyyy?

Xanthoria parietina die of drunkenness

Hi last night I noticed my current batch went moldy. And I'm reasonably sure it is actual mold and not xan hyphae, because it smelled like actual mold and some of the threads had little mold-shaped fruiting orb things coming out of them (I don't believe Xanthoria is capable of growing orbs like that).

Maybe I should study some weather forecasts more thoroughly to get an understanding of how they're able to live in places with frequent precipitation. It probably has something to do with evaporation but, then again, excessively frequent dehydration cycles compromise their photosynthetic effectiveness. Problematic!

Xanthoria parietina finally get drunk

The weather has cooled (hopefully into a temp range that allows X. parietina to gain more calories than it loses while photosynthesizing; there doesn't seem to be much research on the subject) and I have, at long last, rehydrated the yellow things!

Also, I retract my statements about the iridescent gametophyte using condensation to iridesce (though it does seem to require water to do so nevertheless). I also noticed it becoming non-iridescent in sufficiently bright light; I had previously believed it became more (not less) iridescent when well-illuminated.

Oh neat, just resighted some of the L. zonatus I released

Isn't it cool when you see some bugs in the wild and then find the exact same individuals still there several days later?

Released my L. zonatus today

Finally found a tree with enough fruits to feed them for the rest of their lives! Good riddance.

By the way, make sure to always keep coreids in groups. Research papers note L. zonatus and numerous other Coreidae dying prematurely after being put in solitary confinement; the reason for this probably has something to do with collective salivation (according to a research book on archive.org I am too depressed to hunt down the link for). I assume that, if true, it works on this logic:

1. Single specimens cannot produce enough saliva to engage in proper extraoral digestion.

2. More individuals = more saliva = efficienter digestion.

3. If the host plant produces defensive chemicals, a sufficiently large cluster of individuals can neutralize the chems through sheer numbers.

I have occasionally observed my zonatus appearing to steal conspecifics' injected saliva, suggesting that when living conditions are suboptimal they may kleptoparasitize each other instead of salivating cooperatively. It's a shame I can't afford the expensive tools needed to actually investigate this in any detail.

Also I should probably tell you that the nymphs (and probably also adults) vibrate inaudibly now and then. Not sure what function it serves, but they tend to do it when another individual is about to walk into them. It's tempting to conclude that it's some sort of "respect my personal space" signal, but they do not vibrate consistently when walked into (and the recipients of the signal don't seem to react to it, except possibly by freezing) so I'll refrain from drawing conclusions.

Starwort update

 

Hi yes I rehydrated my A. californica a few days ago. Not much else to say about it, waiting for plants to grow is hella boring.

This dummy has been trying to drink the wall for at least fifteen minutes now

 

Also I have way more than eight specimens now (I grabbed a whole bunch more today).

I have adults!

 Two Three* of my L. zonatus simultaneously performed their final molts today!

Current stats:

Adult x3

Final-instar nymph x3

Early-instar nymph x2

* A third one adulted itself several hours after I posted this. I expect the other two will shortly follow.

Final-instar nymph of Leptoglossus zonatus

 

Hi I grabbed some juveniles and prevented them from being murdered. I'll probably release them as soon as I have an opportunity; all they do is sit around and slurp their tomato, it's not very interesting.

Bust, apparently

 The A. californica specimen from the previous post turned gray wherever it remained too wet. The parts of it that didn't were still green, and according to my calculations the light, substrate, and pH levels are all within a suitable range, so I'm more or less certain the water's indeed the problem. By the way, have I mentioned it was a calcareous-substrate plant? Yeah, the research papers never mention this but in the wild I found it growing with Bryum argenteum + lanatum, which are known calcicolous taxa, so we can deduce it's one too.

Anyways, I've decided that I'll let my wort go dormant for now because of the heat wave (I suspect it cannot gain any calories from photosynthesis above 79 Fahrenheit or so). Let's hope that once the weather cools down it'll start growing sprouts when I start watering.

Asterella or bust

 

Time to make a fourth attempt at raising Asterella californica! I've never mentioned my second and third attempts on this blog because I'm good at procrastinating. I'll try my best to mention them as soon as I summon enough motivation to.

Long story short: this specimen was collected around (if not at) the same time (last spring) as the ones in the third attempt. All specimens from said third attempt are now dead; the cause of death appears to be poor ventilation. When not dormant, many cryptogams (even tropical ones, oddly) suffer heat stress around 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  The common aquarists' moss Fontinalis antipyretica is known to turn brown at 68°F, for example. And 80 fahrens is a pretty comfortable temperature for me, so it's possible for me to be shivering and sneezing at the exact same temperatures that a moss or lichen is being scalded to death at. Some cryptogams solve the heat problem through evaporative cooling, and in a poorly ventilated moist container evaporative cooling is barely possible. I could not dare ventilate mine because whenever I did so sciarid larvae ate them. Yeah.

Anyways, this Asterella specimen was originally sitting around dormant in my bedroom as a spare, just in case the ones in attempt 3 died. And die they did. But the sciarids have naturally died off too so I un-dehydrated my spare yesterday.

Here's a pic of the rarely-seen underside! Note the herringbone pattern of its various appendages. It's not too obvious in this photo (all my more dramatic photos of the herringboning are blurry).

I also hasten to add that a few months ago I got myself a specialized plant-growing light and that my A. californica is its current user! Now I'll no longer have to worry about my dim win- well, actually, I still have to worry about the dim windows. My fern gametophyte cultures all still have tons of annoying mites in them and for that reason I'm unwilling to put them under the light with the Asterella; we've discussed below how the mites in question appear capable of dispersing themselves (and unwanted spores) to nearby containers. With that being said, I recently discovered the iridescent ones can grow on mite-unfriendly surfaces like roughened plastic, so maybe I'll acquire a mite-free fern culture pretty soon.

Minor note

 I've updated the "finally found Xanthoria" post below with a photo of the park so you can get the aesthetic vibes of the place. Also, the xan-culturing experiment has stalled again due to unexpected financial difficulties.

Cotinis mutabilis macros (plus a springtail)

Now that I finally have a macro cam I shall never be low on footage for any entomology outreach projects I decide to resume! Not that that's happening any time soon (am too depressed and honestly don't even like bugs that much any more).  Here is a C. mutabilis specimen I rescued (not from plastic entanglement this time; the trees near that plastic net from last year are now so large the beetles avoid flying into the latter) and released. Also, note the mites "inside" its face.

What else can I say? They look just the same as any other Cotinis pictures online so it's not very exciting for me. Here's a video anyways I guess.

Oh, also, here's the springtail (Lepidocyrtus).

Two of my plant cups are respectively infested with Lepidocyrtus and "springlesstails" (generic white Onychiurinae); you may have seen the onychiurines in the background of my iridescent gametophyte photos. They evidently hitchhiked in with the soil because the USDA is crap at its job and almost every soil bag I open is filled with mites, collembolans, and/or mushrooms. Who knows how many nonnative ones have established in the US by now? I'm not going to post my onychiurine and soil mite macros here though, it's not worth my time.

I also must say that despite their ability to keep the soil clean I'm going to try my best to make at least one microarthropod-free subculture for each of my plant taxa. The smaller mites are especially problematic as they may eat my lichens and act as unwanted dispersal agents for all my small-propaguled cryptogams (the animals easily crawl through gaps in the clingfilm and could cross-contaminate my cultures or, worse, spread my nonnative species from indoors to outdoors). Besides, microanimals in general fertilize the soil, which is not good if one wants to grow oligotrophs. Aaaaaaand I plan to acquire a lot of oligotrophic plants.

Admittedly I do feel bad about actively killing the bugs; guess I'll just avoid promoting their population growth as much as I can.

Macro pics of my probable fern gametophytes

 

Sorry if the pic of the iridescent species looks oversaturated. It looked fine on my other device because different devices display colors differently.

Xanthoria or bust (continued)

 

I am pleased to report that I went to a coastal urban park and got my hands on Xanthoria parietina last Sunday! My painful lack of specimens is finally over!

I also discovered that its preferred temperatures during photosynthesis were way lower than I thought. I'm keeping my specimens dehydrated (and thus dormant) until my new mini refrigerator arrives.

Stay tuned I guess.

Update: forgot to post pic of park. Here:

20-day timelapse of iridescent thing (June 4 to 24)

 

Note the stick in the top left. I painstakingly adjusted both pics so the stick was pretty much the same angle and size in each. I also no longer think there is much chance of it being a marchantiophyte; morphological cues strongly hint to me it is a self-replicating fern gametophyte that is unable or unwilling to produce sporophytes.

Also, I am planning to send it to a lab for analysis! To my (and the fern researcher I talked to's) knowledge, iridescence has never been documented in fern gametophytes before.

Update to previous post

 

Here is the specimen I had labeled "not pictured"; I finally summoned up the energy to rephotograph it. Also I just discovered at least one unsolicited moss gametophyte which popped up in the cup (I say "at least" because the algal covering is so dense I can barely tell alga from moss).

Hi sorry for not posting

Over the course of the past few months I've managed to have a ton of adventures but they were all extremely boring ones, and summoning the motivation to post has been rather hard.

Anyways, remember that thing I found as a grocery store weed? Yeah here it is, it's grown considerably and become all shimmery (reminds me of Schistostega or some of the green-iridescent Begonia). Normally, neon iridescence of this sort concentrates dim light to aid photosynthesis, but I'm not 100% sure it has any adaptive benefit in this case; the effect seems to be caused by tiny condensation droplets on the underside and apparently disappears when the soil is sufficiently dry. But then again, perhaps the plant is "deliberately" engineering itself in a way that the droplets focus light onto its body? Who knows!

Also note that the center of this rosette is non-iridescent. This is because of the powdery gemmae that develop at the edges of each thallus.

Other news: the more fern-like thallus (not pictured) is still doing well and has gotten bigger (though still no detectable sporophyte or asexual reproduction).

Oh yeah all my Sphaerocarpos died months ago (long unimportant story involving water chemistry difficulties) but I acquired a ton of other Marchantiophyta! More on that later.