Rainy weekend wildlife

[urbpan]

A sudden change in weather, from drought conditions to thunder and downpours, is bound to make some different living things pop up here and there. Here is a fresh fruiting body of Polyporus alveolaris, the hex-polypore, on a twig of shagbark hickory.



We have an old stump in the front yard, with a birdbath on it. The trunk and leaves of the tree are long vanished, but the stump continues to support many forms of life. Here is a bloom of ringless honey mushrooms, still feeding on the long dead roots of the tree.

Staying put at home more often means I see many of the same organisms over and over again. But that can provide important information about seasonality and recurrence. I last documented this species in this spot on September 16th, 2011.


I came in from the rain and felt a tickle on my skin. I've trained myself to look before I swat, since I find some of the most interesting life forms that way. This is a little ichneumon wasp--I put in a request for ID to bugguide, but if you would like to beat them to it I would be quite happy.


She's very pretty! That alarming-looking sharp thing sticking from her abdomen is not a stinger, but an ovipositor. She will use it to insert her eggs directly into some other insect. Her young will feed on it as they grow, eventually killing it. A creature that always kills the creature it lives in or on is more properly known as a parasitoid rather than a parasite.


Here's that last picture with a little more context, so you can see how small she is compared to my thumb.