What is it Wednesday archive: October 31, 2018

 Can you identify what's in this photo?

 

 

Each Wednesday morning 

on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page

 the Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program posts a photo. 

 

 

Readers have all morning and afternoon 

to make their best guess about what the photo is. 

 

Around 6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.

 

 

Each week's What is it Wednesday post 

will also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

 after it is posted on Facebook,

sometimes with additional bonus information. 

 

In addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday 

on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

we will be reposting old editions,

creating a What is it Wednesday archive. 

 

This photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday on

October 31, 2018. 

 

 

 

And the answer is....

 

 This eerie looking fungus has a spooky name: dead man’s fingers. 

Here it is growing out of a dead log, but it is sometimes found poking up out of soil or leaf litter, perhaps giving the appearance of fingers reaching out of a grave. Spooky! 

There is something dead here, but it’s not fingers. Dead man’s fingers, like most other fungus, lives by consuming the decaying matter of dead wood, which helps the dead sticks, logs, trees and roots in our forests turn into soil to nurture the next generation of plants. 

There are many cases in nature of something looking “scary” to us, and maybe even leading to a superstition, when it is just doing its job. Learning about these things can help us see what we encounter in nature as less scary and more interesting. 

For more on how LEEP can help you can transform the scary into the fascinating through knowledge, check out www.Lutherlyn.com/ee. 

Like and follow Camp Lutherlyn on Facebook, to see What is it Wednesday posts when they come out and have the opportunity to share your guesses in the comments!

What is it Wednesday: October 28, 2020

 

Can you identify what's in this photo?

 

 

Each Wednesday morning 

on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page

 the Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program posts a photo. 

 

 

Readers have all morning and afternoon 

to make their best guess about what the photo is. 

 

Around 6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.

 

 

Each week's What is it Wednesday post 

will also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

 after it is posted on Facebook,

sometimes with additional bonus information. 

 

In addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday 

on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

we will be reposting old editions,

creating a What is it Wednesday archive. 

 

This photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday on

October 28, 2020. 

 

 

 

And the answer is....

This is a dead moth covered by a cordyceps fungus.

There are over 400 species of cordyceps fungus worldwide, most in Asia, but a handful are found in Pennsylvania. Some grow on the larvae and pupae of insects, and others grow off of other fungi. Some produce visible club mushrooms above the surface of the soil. And some, occasionally, parasitize adult moths like this one.

In conditions with the correct temperature and high humidity, spores from the fungus land on an insect and penetrate its body. As the fungus begins to infest the insect, the insect often moves to a high resting place, like the end of a branch. The fungus then develops further inside the insect and eventually emerges to its surface, completely covering it and killing it. The strands that extend from the surface of the fungus, along with the high resting place of the insect, make it easier for the new spores of the fungus to disperse.

Fungi that function this way are called entomopathogenic -- entomo means having to do with insects and a pathogen is an organism that causes disease or harm to its host. Some types of entomopathogenic  cordyceps fungi that control their hosts’ behavior are called “zombie fungus” – spooky! Other types of cordyceps mushrooms are valued in traditional Chinese medicine or are being studied as possible natural insect controls. Happy Halloween everyone! 

What is it Wednesday archive: October 30, 2019

 

Can you identify what's in this photo?

 

 

Each Wednesday morning 

on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page

 the Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program posts a photo. 

 

 

Readers have all morning and afternoon 

to make their best guess about what the photo is. 

 

Around 6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.

 

 

Each week's What is it Wednesday post 

will also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

 after it is posted on Facebook,

sometimes with additional bonus information. 

 

In addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday 

on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

we will be reposting old editions,

creating a What is it Wednesday archive. 

 

This photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday on

October 30, 2019. 

 

 

 

And the answer is....

 

 This beautiful spider is an orange marbled orb weaver. 

There are many color variations of marbled orb weaver, but the bright orange variety seen here give this spider the common name “pumpkin spider” and makes it a perfect feature for October and Halloween! 

Spiders have two body parts – the abdomen and cephalothorax (head and “chest” in one section). The abdomen is the most visible part in this picture, the cephalothorax is just barely visible (and a bit blurry) on the spider’s bottom right side under its outstretched legs.

All orb weavers are part of the arachnid family Araneidae. That makes this orb weaver a relative of the  yellow and black Argiope garden spider, a previous What is it Wednesday feature. All orb weavers build a round web with “spokes” of thread radiating outward from the center, some of them sticky “capture” threads. While argiopes wait for their prey in the middle of the web, marbled orb weavers wait for their prey while concealed off to the side of their web. A single signal thread reaches from the center of the web to their hiding spot, and vibrations on this thread of the web alert the spider that something has landed in the web.

The bright colors and large abdomen of this spider give it a startling appearance, but they are docile and non-aggressive, so humans have nothing to fear from them. In fact, they are great neighbors to have, because by preying on insects, they help control insect populations. In fact, most of the creatures that humans fear in nature are harmless and just doing their job as part of the ecosystem.

For more on how LEEP can help you transform your view of nature from fearful to fascinating, through school field trips, Saturday Safaris, summer camp, retreats and more, check out www.Lutherlyn.com/ee. Happy Halloween everyone!  

Like and follow Camp Lutherlyn on Facebook, to see What is it Wednesday posts when they come out and have the opportunity to share your guesses in the comments!

Toothpaste Slime Mold

   a.k.a.

Wolf’s Milk Slime

   a.k.a.

Lycogala epidendrum

by Holly Schubert

Photo by Lisa K. Suits   from http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/wolfs-milk-slime-toothpaste-slime

From time to time we come across these little pink bubbles while walking in the forest with campers or students. They are small, but eye-catching, and people often want to know, “what is that?!” These are commonly known as Toothpaste Slime Mold, sometimes Wolf’s Milk Slime, and their scientific name is Lycogala epidendrum.

Toothpaste slime mold at Lutherlyn, 2014.

They look like funky mushrooms, but slime molds are not really a fungus. In fact, scientists have had a hard time pinning down exactly what they are. The Conservation Commission of Missouri says slime molds “at one time were regarded as animals, then thought to be plants, then fungi. Now, because of DNA studies, slime molds are believed to be closer to the protozoa.”

These organisms are also pretty amazing!

Slime molds like the toothpaste slime mold are known as plasmodial slime molds, and have two main life stages. In the first plasmodium stage, the slime mold is like a huge single-celled amoeba (huge for an amoeba anyhow!), and can creep along on dead plant matter in search of food, consuming bacteria, yeasts, and fungi. (It is this feature of slime molds that was part of the inspiration for the 1950’s horror movie “The Blob”!)

When there is no more food source available, the plasmodium gets ready to reproduce and turns into a fruiting body – essentially a spore sac. This is the second life stage, and this is what we see – in a toothpaste slime mold it appears as little pink bubbles growing on the sides of trees and dead logs. 

toothpaste slime mold at Lutherylyn, 2020.

When immature, its insides are a pink goo that looks a little like toothpaste, hence one of its common names. As the fruiting body matures, the insides dry out and turn brown or gray. The dry spores then disperse on the wind to create more slime molds. The change from pink and spongy with oozy goo inside to dry and gray-brown with a puff of spores inside can take place in a single day. If you see a slime mold and go back to look at it tomorrow, it may be completely gone!

"Pink and brown slime molds" by Benny Mazur from Toledo, OH                Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons -https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pink_and_brown_slime_molds.jpg#/media/File:Pink_and_brown_slime_molds.jpg

So if you see those cute bubble-gum pink bubbles on a dead log, take a close look! And keep in mind that they started out as a “huge” single-celled organism that can move under its own power, consuming food as it oozes along; that its true nature has puzzled scientists for decades; and that it may be gone within a day. Scientists have even seen some slime molds learn from their environment and change their behavior in anticipation of expected conditions! Nature truly is full of weird wonderful beauty!

For further reading:
Wikipedia, Slime Mold
Wikipedia, Lycogala epidendrum
Missouri Department of Conservation, Wolf’s Milk Slime (Toothpaste Slime) 
Discover, Slime Molds Show Surprising Degree of Intelligence