Urban wildlife mystery! (ID help needed)

[urbpan]

Alexis and I went to West Roxbury for brunch on Sunday. Right where we parked I noticed this little dead street tree with polypore mushrooms on it. What's that red stuff? I wondered...




Why, it's hundreds of bright red insects, of course!


I take the massive amounts of red ones to be larvae (or nymphs) and the few dark ones to be adults. These are just a couple mm long, so pretty darn small. Shaped like rove beetles, but much more numerous than I would expect for beetles--I've never seen beetle larvae in maggot quantities before. My best guess is that these are in the Tachyporinae group, but that--as I say--is a guess. Clearly the mushrooms are the focus for the insects--are they feeding on them? It seems likely.

EDITED TO ADD: Wrong wrong wrong! Alexis' superior googling ability turned up a similar "what beetle is this" query, complete with the answer: "Not a beetle at all, nincompoop." To be fair, they've stumped at least two more entomologists in the past few hours. Thrips are usually thought of as plant pests, but these appear to be ones that feed on spores (judging by the way they are swarming over the spore producing surface of the mushrooms). I know virtually nothing about thrips, except that the horticulture director down the hall sometimes mentions them when he is cursing. I should do some more research.

It's always great to find something completely new, especially in the city!

Comments

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

At first it looked rather like stunted Ganoderma lucidum, which I have seen in New York City before. Then I clicked on the ljcut and... wow. That's fascinating!