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.