More assorted news

 

I photographed the fully macropterous form of Gryllodes sigillatus a few days ago! Unlike most of the "rare" specimens I encounter, it is genuinely rare and not merely underdocumented-but-common. I kept seeing full macropters in my yard but failed to catch any until today (they kept jumping off). I managed to catch this one mainly because it barely jumped and seemed slightly weak (I felt bad for it, so I fed it a rice blob before releasing it).

I also managed to photo a semi-macropterous female (also rare) a while before this. Not posting my pics of it here, since they were of poor quality, but it looked just like a full macropter lacking the long needle-shaped hindwings. Its forewings were the same length as those on the full macropter though. 

Neither the semi-macropter nor full macropters ever used their wings in my presence by the way.

On an unrelated note, I made another trip to the Californian coast in hopes of finding some Xanthoria parietina. Once again I did not see a single foliose lichen of any sort; the whole place was coated in generic range/yellow/black/white crust lichens just like last time. Here is a pretty pic I took there though!

I go to AZ

(the view outside my hotel)

Here are some pics from my recent trip to Arizona! Sadly the trip itself was a disappointment - I came back emptyhanded because I saw nothing I wanted to take home. In fact, the trails I looked in were completely devoid of Marchantiophyta. I was also bored the whole time because I don't enjoy sightseeing very much.

Red Rock State Park:

Miller Visitor Center

Argia ludens male (these were abundant)

Unidentified skipper thingy

Eleodes longicollis

(who knew river mud could be so pretty)

Eleodes obscura sulcipennis

A member of the Stenomorpha marginata group; sadly dead

Miscellaneous pics:

I found this Polyphylla specimen sleeping in the open on an urban wall; it was probably unable to move to a safer location because nighttime light pollution (read: attraction to lamps) had rendered it too confused to do so. It sat on my arm unrestrained for the rest of the day since it was too drowsy to flee. I could not find a safe place to release it before night came, and once it was dark the scarab woke up and panicked all night (it presumably has a psychological need for flight). Fortunately I found a suitable release location the next morning.

(yes the lichens really were this color)

Solanaceae, presumably

(this was the only place I visited that didn't have reddish dirt)

Wild Shelfordella lateralis male (seemingly dying of pesticides)

Lygaeus

Sadly, none of these were Xanthoria parietina

Xanthoria or bust

As some of you know, I have been trying to get my hands on and culture a live specimen of Xanthoria parietina for several years now. This is because it has a combination of traits which makes it very useful, including:

- relatively rapid growth (reportedly up to 7 mm per yr, although this is still far slower than rates reported for Herpothallon/Cryptothecia)

- strong sun/dehydration tolerance

- ability to detoxify pollutants and use them as fertilizer

- large size (easier to manipulate and photograph)

- ability to grow on a wide variety of substrates, including plastic

- calciphily (it won't throw fits and die if given hard water)

- ability to tolerate lawn sprinklers (many lichens become injured if rehydration from a dry state is not preceded by a slow, gradual air humidity increase; sprinkler tolerance means that it can survive/grow even when no such gradual increase is present)

Unfortunately, it does not grow anywhere near me, which is why I have not acquired one yet. My attempts to get acquaintances to mail me some have also been wildly unsuccessful. So a few days ago I went on a trip to the coast, as it is often associated with coastal habitats*.

...I did not see a single foliose/fruticose lichen, although orange/yellow dot lichens and intertidal organisms were abundant. Even the ancient Spanish mission I visited (see pic above) had a rather pitiful lichen flora. Also, despite the abundant eye candy I was sad the whole time, as I do not believe in vacationing for sightseeing's sake.

I can't post about only my successes, can I? That would be biased and perhaps dishonest. Maybe you'll enjoy the eye candy more than I did. Here's an urchin I found on the beach:

Mesocentrotus franciscanus

*X. parietina seems to require salt to survive. However, it is not aquatic (it drowns if kept too wet) and in fact I believe its salt requirement is actually quite low. According to the literature, aerosolized salt from ocean breezes appears adequate for its needs (at least one paper also suggests that road salt may cause it to appear in non-coastal regions). So I imagine that the salt thing should not be too problematic for me if I acquire a specimen.

Cotinis adults are in season!

 I saw my first C. mutabilis of the year today! Unfortunately, I seem to have severely injured it by accident. It was dangerously close to flying into plastic and then dying of plastic entanglement, so I grabbed it and threw it away. For some reason it did not fly when thrown, and upon landing several of its tarsi had seemingly lost the ability to flex/bend. I was definitely not expecting that to happen, as healthy specimens do not generally refuse flight when thrown.

At least I compensated it with free brunch afterwards? It still seemed possibly moribund though. Oh dear.

Asterella gets fifteen minutes of fame

The Los Angeles Times featured me briefly on their plant Instagram! By the way, the specimen is still dormant because I am too sad (and afraid of molds) to rehydrate it.

Fun lichen paper

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231809006_Growth_from_the_Centre_in_an_Umbilicate_Lichen

This isn't a particularly useful paper, but its description of how Lasallia pustules emerge and migrate from the thallus center like soap bubbles being blown by a machine is quite sublime and oddly amusing.

4/20 boring update

Asterella is dried up and thus dormant, because I got sick of having moldy wet dirt in my house. Sphaerocarpos is dead again.

I'm not sure I like dirt any more

The cactus potting soil I stored dry and seemingly in clean conditions for months began emitting a faint moldy odor as soon as I rehydrated it. The gravel in the Asterella californica cup has also developed a similarly mild but unpleasant odor over the past few months. Intriguingly the dead mushy parts of the Asterella itself have no visible or smellable microbial presence; I suspect its flesh contains natural antibiotics. Ironically, the dirt in the Sphaerocarpos jar had a pleasant nutty smell and no mold (despite being in an airtight humid container) when the Sphaerocarpos in it were still thriving. The nutty smell is gone now that the sphaers are decaying, of course, but I'm surprised the pleasant scent lasted for weeks under sopping wet conditions.

Also I got some new Sphaerocarpos to replace the dead ones. I touched the new ones with my hands after washing them in hard water, because I had no access to soft water at the time, and I suspect the calcareous residues from my hands may kill them eventually. So far it is still alive though.

Anyways, despite being in microbe-infested dirt, the Asterella seems to have increased its sprout size by a few more millimeters! I can't wait for the pandemic to end so I can give it a thorough sanitization and acquire some dirt that won't mold.

4/10 update

Sphaerocarpos turned to slime. I suspect I used tap water w too many chems.

Asterella californica became subtly but increasingly brown around its growing point, I let it dry out one too many times because of absentmindedness and misery. Fortunately I imagine it may recover from this if I keep it damp long enough.

4/5 hasty plant update

 

Asterella californica: As usual I couldn't be bothered to take a nonblurry photo, so here is an ugly one! If you look carefully, you can see that green lobes are growing around the brown orb in the center. I highly doubt the lobes will grow into a new orb; I imagine they'll grow into new "leaves". I am glad that it is capable of surviving on hard water! Quite exciting.

Sphaerocarpos: v probably still growing rapidly. Have not checked it.

Physciella chloantha: I acquired some more. It better not die.

Mosses: Tired. Unmotivated. I dumped all of them (including the uninvited freebies from the Asterella cup) into a small container and let it dry out.  Maybe I'll rehydrate the thing when I am less tired.

Sphaerocarpos update 3/17

All of my Sphaerocarpos specimens have grown very rapidly!

Here is a pic of one. As you can see, it is no longer yellow. Evidently, being moved to a brighter place has increased its health. It's not very obvious in the pic, but my specimens have also decreased the size of their sexual balloons and covered themselves in a network of green threads (I believe they are protonemata, though possibly of mosses). Their thalli are also now no longer tightly appressed to the ground, instead fanning out into the air in all directions. The plants now look like corals covered in spider gossamer.

The balloon shrinkage was not surprising - after all I'd already read long ago that female Sphaerocarpos rapidly reduce their balloon mass and both sexes become unnaturally healthy/fastgrowing when in captivity.

I wish I was capable of such phenotypic plasticity. Unnatural health is so cool...