Physciella chloantha is back!

Now that I have had a better understanding of lichen supersaturation depression and spray bottles, I expect the chances of success to be much higher! Hopefully the specimens actually decide to actually grow this time.

I fail to culture slimes again

I have been kidnapping slimes (probably Fuligo septica, say the slime people) off a neighbor's lawn! It was in vain though, chunks removed from the pictured specimen largely did not move and also refused to feed.

It seems I had collected them too late in the ripening sequence to reverse the fruiting process.

Pomacea is dead

Pomacea got killed a few months earlier. After finding myself in a dilemma involving perpetual extreme exhaustion and suboptimal weather conditions I was unable to change its water in time and thus poisoned it to death.

I kind of saw it coming (my low sanity and the resulting tiredness has caused significant problems in the past), but it had the nerve to be dead right when I was attempting to mail it out to someone with more aquarium freespace than myself.

Toxomerus marginatus, slow motion

Two males doing... something?

Female flies away.

Other hoppers do it too

(note dandelion scrap in mouth)

Remember all the Scudderia mexicana handfeeding? Guess what, even more severe nervous wrecks like Schistocerca nitens can also be picked up and given snacks too! This specimen had highly idiosyncratic eating habits very unlike those of the tettigoniids (which strongly prefer high-energy items like sugar and pollen). It took a few bites out of lawn grasses (never seen any other polyphagous grazing invert eat lawn!) and white clover foliage intermittently while wandering; it refused to eat white clover flowers and had minimal interest in wet raisin, and after some persuading and hesitation decided to violently ingest an entire dandelion inflorescence. It then palpated and possibly chewed a second dandy but was evidently not interested, and later flew off.

Despite the refusal of dandy two, no alarm behaviors were induced upon offering, so here is a video demonstrating proper etiquette when feeding easily frightened Orthoptera! Note that S. mexicana and Phaneroptera nana appear to be only frightened by sudden tactile stimuli, while most S. nitens specimens (not this one of course) will panic when they see close-range abrupt movements.

One (1) luck obtained!

Unfortunately, my current lawn's syrphid biodiversity consists almost exclusively of Toxomerus marginatus, which float around in sparse clouds near tasty grass inflorescences and dandelions. Fortunately, last Saturday I photographed a rare aberrant marginatus specimen! If you view the fullsized image you may notice that its tail is crooked and has a lopsided splotch.

April Fool's 2020

I can't wait to FINALLY key all my Coniontis to species!

I sure am pleased with myself for duping two bugguide editors in a row!

As always, click to zoom!

Now grape-flavored!

I decided to acetone the red lichens today, because a greenbottle had been walking around and possibly on them.

As expected, the red pigment (probably chiodectonic acid, but since the taxonomy is unclear I can't be sure) rapidly dissolved, eventually causing the big thallus to turn brownish green and the smaller fragments to be completely white. If I recall correctly the white compounds do not dissolve in acetone, and since the big one had less of them it would explain the difference.

Then the big thallus (not the others) turned purple. I can only hope it wasn't killed by the chemical reaction. Edit: even violent rinsing failed to remove the purple; I threw them out.

Spring minor updates

Brown Male sure enjoys its sunbaths

- Pomacea diffusa specimen is now feeding actively again!

- The green discoloration previously mentioned on red mystery Herpothallon appears to be yellow now; whether this is caused by improper misting, sunburn, or conditions outside my control is unclear. Red regions also appear to be fading in color. A Candelaria(?) thallus also appears to be yellowing for the wrong reasons; during an unexpected artificial-shade failure it presumably became sunburned too (and since it was acetone rinsed its natural bright yellow sunscreen was washed off, so presumably the new yellow is from moribund algae). The blackish jelly lichen displays no apparent ill health though, even though such things are supposed to throw violent tantrums during air pollution. In any case, since all red mystery thalli survived for a suspiciously long period of time under extreme hydration frequency before showing signs of thallus damage, and since some reds still appear healthy, I suspect that the experiment is not a failure yet. Some of the mosses on the largest red's wood block are still green and seemingly fine.

- After several embarrassing incidents the brown Scudderia mexicana male has lost its semi-tameness but fortunately I compensated it with some extra desserts. I have continued failing miserably at filming courtship behavior due to a lack of receptive females, and will not be watching the male regularly any longer.

Herpothallon rubrocinctum(?) update

All rubrocinctum(?) samples are evidently not dead; some of the true mosses they came with have withered but others are perfectly fine. Samples do not appear to have grown a single millimeter. There is an unusually green discoloration near the side of the thallus. The small thallus fragment shown in the previous post has become entirely white except for its red regions; others remain pale blue-green (and at least one of the other small fragments have yellowed slightly, presumably from an accidental sunburn). I have noticed that lichens on small wood chunks are hard to water properly, since they easily become too flooded and then dry out with equal speed.

More fun misadventures with Scudderia

brown male eats pollen with a green female

Recently I have found that Scudderia mexicana habituates to tactile stimulation during strong winds; it fails to react to even severe battering by nearby swaying leaves and likewise fails to react when scooped up in the hand:

same female as above

Interestingly today I have also found that even during nonwindy days it is possible to hold them, as long as pollensticks are provided as bribery (and sudden movements are avoided). Several reports exist of captive-raised Scudderia spp. becoming permanently fearless; I encourage keepers of other long-lived Tettigoniidae to experiment with desensitization training too. Unfortunately Phaneroptera nana does not currently seem to be active in my area for some reason, so I was unable to test my ideas on it.


S. mexicana is, as previously mentioned, a highly sedentary animal when sufficiently satiated (even during the night); I have recently been playing with a brown and slightly bowlegged (harmless mismolt?) male, which currently seems to shuttle between two semiclearly defined perches in my front yard every large handful of hours. I have seen the same specimen in the distant past, so evidently the sunny CA weather has allowed it a long life.

As with other specimens, it is quite incompetent at selecting camouflaged locations and even more incompetent at holding onto food detached from its host plant:

Fortunately all specimens somehow apparently suffer little mortality risk even when sitting on weirdly colored succulents for days or eating the bright pink/yellow pollensticks I have provided, even though hummingbirds and small brown/yellow birds regularly fly around the area.


My current attempts at obtaining a receptive female for it and documenting courtship are quite unsuccessful;

(note the exposing of dorsal abdomen by the male)

In any case, it is pleasant to be able to interact with a bunch of wild hoppers without inducing stress! Updates soon, if I succeed in courtship documentation.