280 days of Urbpandemonium #185

Like so many of New England's little soil creatures, the dusky slug Arion subfuscus*, is a European import. Its orange mucus distinguishes it from other terrestrial mollusks we might encounter. These animals eat mushrooms and relatively soft plants, including many garden fruits and vegetable. Its broad palate and the fact that it carries both male and female gametes has allows it to spread a third of the way across the continent from its introduction point in Boston in the 1800s.


*Somewhat dusky slug (Arion fuscus, literally "dusky slug," is a close relative found further east in its native European range.

Unidentified household fungus species

I wish there was an easy way to identify organisms like this in the field. The field, in this case, is a glass of dilute fruit juice that I left on the night stand for a couple days. The organism or organisms is/are one or more species of fungi that somehow make(s) little rafts out of its hyphae, floating on the surface of the liquid, feeding on sugars below, while producing green reproductive spores above. I eagerly await home DNA barcoding technology so that I can know the names of all the living things that share my home.

280 days of Urbpandemonium #186

Frankly, I'd never heard of the hackberry tree Celtis occidentalis* before my first encounter with the hackberry nipple gall. I think we can agree that's one of the most wonderful word combinations I've placed here. The galls are made by aphid-like insects called psyllids, in the genus Pachypsylla, including notably Pachypsylla celtidismamma.** The galls also harbor some non-gallmaking psyllids who benefit from their relatives' alteration of the hackberry leaf.


*Western hackberry

**Hackberry breast thick flea

280 days of Urbpandemonium #187

My moth expert friend says this is probably Coleophora,* one of a large genus of casebearer moths. The larvae of these moths spin protective cases of silk and debris, similar to the cases that aquatic caddisfly larvae make.

*Sheath-carrier

Houseguest in tube with puppy

280 days of Urbpandemonium #188

At first it looks like an extra large woolly bear, that never developed the reddish brown band. Or maybe it died it's brown setae black as a countercultural fashion statement.


But then when its picked up, it goes into a defensive curl, revealing bare bands of bright red cuticle. It's another warning, but intended for birds and other predators.


The giant leopard moth caterpillar Hypercompe scribonia can be handled safely by humans. Please don't squish it, as it will change into a lovely white moth with open black spots, and hidden blue and orange colors on its abdomen. The caterpillar has as broad a taste for plants as the woolly bear, and even includes tropical and subtropical plants like banana and orange. The moth occurs from Texas to Minnesota and everything east of that, including some of the Caribbean islands.

* Very shackled good writer (Scribonia is a Roman given name and an opera character--the name suggests the meaning of good writer: Scribo + bonus; the taxonomist was almost certainly referring to the black markings on the white moth, which resemble writing.)