Nooooooooo!

 I have recently had to, umm, let's euphemistically call it a forced vacation. Had to temporarily give my bugs to an aforementioned entomological acquaintance. Cryptocephalus sanguinicollis was unharmed afterwards (indeed, the grubs more than doubled in size in the two weeks I was away and are now very roughly a third of the size of an adult specimen), but the probable Haplodesmidae and Macrosternodesmidae suffered heavy mortality, and now the only live millipedes I have left are a few of the haplodesmid-shaped ones. I think he overwatered them to death despite my warnings, cause when I came back the dirt was all soggy and glistening (my impression is that they probably died of humidity-related causes instead of drowning). He also reports that his Pachybrachis bivittatus all died from excess sun exposure, with no surviving eggs. Additionally, the Huntington worts (which I also left to him) are significantly moldier than before, though still bright green. It's possible the mold's only growing on the dead parts of the worts, I'm not sure. I'm not exactly mad at him, cause everyone makes mistakes, he has a busy schedule, and I'm a pretty forgiving person, but, well, ouch.

Asterella was unharmed because I left it completely dried out for the duration of my absence, and since it can do the poikilohydric resurrection plant thingy it was fine afterwards. Other plants I didn't mention are all fine, and the Eleodes carbonaria is doing fine too.



In other news, my current dodder is Cuscuta californica var. californica, according to the key. Also confirmed the one that died is indeed the subinclusa I provisionally thought it was, but the only surviving fragment is at that acquaintance's house.

I also scooped up some ostracods (maybe they're tiny conchostracans; probably not but I can't tell the difference) from an ornamental waterfall fountain that various birds visit. Looks like that implausible-sounding adage about birds dispersing fish eggs and crustaceans via wet feathers/legs is true, after all. I have no inherent interest in ostracod husbandry but they might be useful for some sort of restoration project later on in some unforeseen future.