3:00 Snapshot, #191

[urbpan]

Home workstation, where I tried to catch up on 3 days of my lj friends list.

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Oak maze-gill. You know, it clouded up this evening, there was some thunder--just enough to scare the dogs--and then nothing. I'm just sitting here sweating, but that's not going to make mushrooms grow. (I hope.)

Comments

Cultural differences at work

[anonuum.livejournal.com]

Reading "that's not going to make mushrooms grow. (I hope.)" caused me great bafflement for a moment as the local news have mentioned that the mushroom harvest may come to be a poor one this year and as mushroom hunting is considered to be both an entertainment and therapy over here, this bit of (possible) bad news has been preying on my mind.

Eventually it did get to me that fungal infection is NOT same as the bounty of forests, but my initial reaction still amused me enough to mention it.

Also, do you personally go mushroom hunt annually or only rarely?

Re: Cultural differences at work

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I mushroom hunt CONSTANTLY though not purposefully. I don't eat the things, so my interest is purely naturalistic. It just makes me sad to endure an entire August with so few sightings. I mushroom like birders bird.

Re: like birders bird

[anonuum.livejournal.com]

While I love eating some mushrooms (pickled or not), what makes sharing my general fascination with most fungi questionable is that when I do notice fungi, I DO NOT do it like birders bird. I am rather the kind of person that would horrify the biologists by either not knowing the true names of what I see or mixing different creatures up.

PS: I also lie - I just remembered my last fungi sighting and, well, there is not much mushy fascination when the sighted fungi happen to be on my sliced rye bread (somehow the rye bread seems to get moldy more easily. Or may-be I just do not use the rye up as fast, hence the mold ...)

[butsu.livejournal.com]

LOL!! kudos for that monitor! :D

off-topic question

[anonuum.livejournal.com]

Someone posted a fascinatingly colorful picture of some insects, but they do not know what those are:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremyt/1347482262/in/set-72157601921649787/

First off, may be you know what are those creatures?

Second, more general - how can one approach such a task of trying to find the name of animal/plant, if one has only a picture? Is there some details one can look for to start a search or is having a good education in natural sciences (or having friends that have such an education) the only answer?

Re: off-topic question

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Wow! Those are colorful!

Making identifications is mainly a matter of what to look for. With plants, for example, having a flower or a fruit to look at is the most helpful, but other parts (leaves, bark if any) are useful, too. A field guide will tell you what to look for, and usually will have a key to lead you step by step to an identification. As I became a naturalist, I accumulated field guides at an alarming rate.

Searching on-line is possible, too, as long as you enter the right terms, and again, know what to look for. Color alone isn't usually a good place to start--try searching for a "purple flower" or a "green bug" and see what I mean.

Here's my step-by-step attempt at identifying those bugs: Count the legs, and look at the body shape. Their bodies are in 3 parts (head, thorax, abdomen) and they have six legs. That makes them insects. Insects often look very different when they are young and when they are adults. The bugs in that picture are mating, so they are adults. Most of the time with insects, I look at the wings to help id, but they are very hard to see. But where the wings are lying on the body (the abdomen) has a shape that that is similar to stink bugs and their relatives (hemiptera, the "true bugs").

If I knew where they were and how big they were, those would help, too. A field guide to insects from that area will help narrow it down. A lot of the time with insects you don't narrow it down to species, but I bet someone on the entomology community could name the family of this bug.

I hope that helped!

Re: off-topic question

[anonuum.livejournal.com]

Thank you, your answer is very helpful (I tend to have trouble with finding the way to start off, hence I like to get overviews of advice that may seem obvious for someone else).

And, as the photographer managed to find out - those are apparently called ambush bugs!

[artemii.livejournal.com]

a friend who was awake at the other 3:00 (a.m.) said that it was lightning constantly in the northwestern sky here in camberville at the time, but that we just got a few drops of rain up here. did you get anything?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

There were a few wet spots on the road, but not much to speak of. I just walked around Jamaica pond and I've never seen it so low.

[artemii.livejournal.com]

the charles was so low in watertown on tuesday that there was a canada goose standing in the river drinking and the river only covered its ankles!

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

That's a cute workstation...;)