please save me I don't want to die

Today's round of boring updates:
- I rehydrated a Xanthoria parietina specimen I had in dry storage. It was dead, because it did not become greenish after hydration. That was my last one.

- I did recently take a sample from the unidentified sunburst lichen pictured above, it was from my own city so it presumably doesn't need salt spray like X. parietina does. The unidentified was growing on painted wood, so it can probably grow on other unnatural nutrientless substrates too, like plastic. To decrease the risk that a heterospecific lichen would grow in my culture and make it easier to peel off the wood, I only took the part that was already loose and hanging in the air.

- Cuscuta subinclusa doing well. Nothing interesting has happened.

- Shortly after I posted my last post all the sealed Cryptocephalus sanguinicollis unsealed their cases when I misted them heavily by accident (light misting did nothing). This did not appear to harm them, and now all 4 are eating petals again. I should also mention C. sanguinicollis larvae are prone to destroying (likely eating) each other's cases, seemingly mistaking them for food. This seems to be why the 7 larvae I had went down to 5; the missing larvae left behind cases with big holes in them, and holes in cryptocephaline cases interfere with proper moisture homeostasis and can kill larvae that way. I should note that 2 of the 4 recently had massive holes made in their cases but then managed to successfully fix them without dying; this is because at the 4-5 millimeter stage larvae are relatively hardy compared to newly hatched ones, and because I kept them all lightly damp after noticing the holes so they wouldn't desiccate while trying to patch them. Weirdly enough the holes are not patched immediately, instead they wait a few days before doing so. Also, behavioral notes: larvae kept dry with water-containing food e.g. petals or larvae kept lightly damp well ventilated are lethargic, which seems to be a sign of health. Larvae that are too wet run around energetically a lot and try to circle/climb walls.

- I don't know if I mentioned it before, but the round-leaved Huntington wort died from mold and depression-induced plant neglect. A few ramets of the unknown pincerwort survived and have grown well on wood-rich soil. Evidently this is a case of the fundamental niche being wider than the realized niche, because in the Huntington the pincerworts only lived high up on trees, with various tropical-looking mosses monopolizing the ground.

- More telegraphweed/Datura seeds added to NHMLA. I also brought and planted some Datura seeds at the Junior High native garden.

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 A while back I saved a wild E. acuticauda female that had only one and a half intact legs left, unlike young healthy members of the species it spends much of its time sleeping and doesn't do the unpleasant-looking "pace around in circles and/or back/forth in a corner" thingy, it utilizes the entire cage. Anyways, it laid some eggs, I hatched the eggs and reared the worms to medium size, threw all 30+ worms in NHMLA yesterday, fingers crossed yeah. E. carbonaria did start doing the pacing thing, I'm going to release the latter back into its habitat.

Also threw some locally wild collected telegraphweed and devil's trumpets in there too, NHMLA has only small amounts of Datura and no preexisting Heterotheca as far as I know.




Down to 4 C. sanguinicollis larvae. For a long time I had 5 but recently I sent the fifth one flying by accident and lost it (I do not expect to refind it). 2 still feeding last time I checked, other 2 are sealed. During their summer dormancy they all simply plugged the cases with their heads, but this time the sealed ones have actually cemented the cases shut with excrement. It should be noted that the sealing coincided with a sudden drop in weather from 80-something fahrenheits to 70-somethings, it seems that chronic exposure to artificial light at night doesn't affect their dormancy circadian rhythms too badly.

Also, acquaintance gave me a piece of my Cuscuta subinclusa clone back, it's curled 4 stems around some strawberry plants but is a little confused because it thinks it's tightly wrapped around its victim (in actuality part of it is touching the strawberry hairs but not the stem the hairs are growing out of). It'll likely succeed in penetrating the host anyways, given that during the penetration process the dodder inflates like one of those blood pressure cuffs they give you for medical checkups.

No noteworthy Asterella californica news, I only have 2 apical notches and both of them are getting etiolated (although not pale) and growing upward instead of touching the sand. They do that when air humidity is sufficiently high.



Sudden wild orbweaver dieoff this year. To reduce the chances of this being a statistically insignificant phenomenon, I corresponded with some relatively trusted acquaintances, who noted the same. Pretty sure due to starvation, because there's anomalously low flying insect density around my house (even invasive flying insects are usually sparse). One Neoscona crucifera I've been feeding with false widows and drowned swimming pool insects has remained plump, although it's run away somewhere to where I can't find it a few days ago (I may have upset it during a certain unsuccessful feeding session attempt) and might therefore starve like the rest of them. It deflated severely whenever I didn't feed it.

I should also note that ground-dwelling urban detritivores have not suffered the same fate as the frequent fliers; for one, Gryllodes sigillatus still comes out in droves every night the way it usually does. Also, while insect density in my area seems often naturally low (especially in arid wilderness), the orbweaver/flier dieoff seems unusually severe.



Anyways that's all for today's soporific updates, have fun I guess.