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>&g Steve, and all, At your suggestion, I just did some looking around to see what I could find out about mites on Bolitotherus cornutus. You may well be quite correct about them being hitch-hiking mites rather than parasitic - not that these beetles move much as I think they're fairly sedentary as beetles go. From the UWM Field Station's "BugLady" blog post: "A number of different species of mites have been documented on FFBs. In one study, researchers checked FFBs in a museum collection for phoretic (hitchhiking) mites and found them on about one-third of the beetles. The mites are species that live in fungi – some eat spores – and they take advantage of the FFB’s longer legs to get around." (see near the end of this page about B. cornutus for above reference): https://www4.uwm.edu/fieldstation/naturalhistory/bugoftheweek/forked-fungus-beetle.cfm Yes, Chris Majka would probably know more about this topic. Wish he was around to take a look! regards, Bev Wigney Round Hill, NS On 5/15/16, Stephen Shaw <srshaw@dal.ca> wrote: > Hi Bev, > A weird looking beetle. Are you sure the mites on it are parasitic though? > Though not the same group of beetles, those mites often found on the larger > Carrion/Sexton beetles that are attracted to corpses (Nicrophorus, many > images on bugguide.net) are apparently hitchhikers that jump off the beetle > upon its arrival at a corpse. Somewhere it said that they eat up the eggs > of incoming carrion flies and so help the beetles to out-compete the flies. > Presumably they then jump back on again for a ride to the next corpse. > > Perhaps 'your' beetle's mites perform some analogous function on bracket > fungi that seem to harbour a range of other fauna, and aren't parasitizing > the beetle at all, just hitchhiking? I'd not heard about other beetles > carrying hitch-hiking mites, but maybe this behaviour is more widespread > than just in Nicrophorus. Chris Majka would have some information on this > but unfortunately no longer visits NatureNS, I think. > Steve (Hfx) > ________________________________________ > From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] on > behalf of Bev Wigney [bkwigney@gmail.com] > Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2016 11:01 AM > To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca > Subject: [NatureNS] Tupperville Nature Walk - notes and observations for May > 14, 2016 > > Hello all, > > The following are notes and observations from yesterday's walk. I > hope they will be of interest to some of you: > > ------------------- > Tupperville Nature Walk - notes and observation for May 14, 2016. > > Yesterday, Donna Crossland and I set out on the first of what we hope > will be occasional nature walks in the general area of Annapolis > Royal. We were hoping for a couple of more participants, but the > drizzle may have dampened some spirits -- but not ours! We set out > regardless. > > Our plan was to walk along the forest trails south of the Tupperville > Hall. I had never hiked there, so it was all new territory. I will > definitely return. > > Donna focussed on keeping a migratory bird count and pointing out wild > plants, while I spent most of my time looking downward for ground > dwelling creatures. I'm appending Donna's detailed bird counts and > other notes. If you don't want to read about slugs and beetles, just > skip on down to the BIRDS section below. > > The highlights of my observations are as follows: > > SLUGS: We saw many slugs moving along the trail - no doubt encouraged > by the warm drizzle. An American Toad crossed our path, probably > enjoying the good slug-hunting conditions. Most slugs that we saw > were yellowish-orange and a few were quite orange in colour. I'm very > accustomed to seeing these around my own place at Round Hill. They > are Arion slugs - I consulted with Aleta Karstad, sending her a photo, > and she replied: "The yellow slug is probably the introduced Arion > vulgaris - not usually as strongly striped like A. subfuscus. Often > with no visible stripe, and usually with dark tentacles, as this one > has. We were finding them in New Brunswick, at the Jacquet River > BioBlitz (Mary's Point area). They were either quite variable, or > hybridizing with something striped, like subfuscus. I have a lot more > dissecting to do." > > Here at my place at Round Hill, the orange slugs tend to get to be > about 6 or 7 cm. long and have black eye stalks. Very striking and > easily seen. Here is a photo of one of the orange slugs from > yesterday's hike. I apologize for the poor photos - due to low light > and water splashes on my camera lens! > http://www.pbase.com/crocodile/image/163224673 > > The other slug was what I was quite sure was a native forest slug. It > was brown-speckled and found on a bracket fungus on a fallen tree. > Aleta had this to say about it: "The speckled slug is the native > forest slug, Philomycus (genus). Not sure of the species. There are > only two native forest slugs - Philomycus and Pallifera, which is very > small and gray. Both of these natives have their mantle covering the > entire body, from neck to tip of tail." > Yes, another blurry, raindrop splashed photo. This slug was about 6 > or so cm. long. > http://www.pbase.com/crocodile/image/163224674 > > INSECTS: Apart from the numerous black flies, the only insect of note > turned out to be the big thrill of the day for me -- as you can see, > it doesn't take much to thrill me -- and that was finding a male and > two female Forked Fungus Beetles (Bolitotherus cornutus) on the > underside of a bracket fungus. These are among my favourite of all > beetles. They are difficult to see - being dark and dull and having > the habit of "playing dead" and rolling off onto the ground when > disturbed from their spot on a bracket fungus. They're rarely seen by > those who don't know to watch for them. However, I took a few photos, > so you will get to see them for yourself The males have curving > "horns" (this is a male). I'm putting up a top and side view, as well > as a view from beneath - as this is how you will often find them. I > see a few small parasitic mites on this fellow. > http://www.pbase.com/crocodile/image/163224665 > http://www.pbase.com/crocodile/image/163224666 > http://www.pbase.com/crocodile/image/163224667 > > Now, over to the BIRD report. > > ----- > BIRDS, PLANTS and more - notes by Donna Crossland: > > Despite the showers, birds were singing nearly everywhere, and a wide > range of species were vocalizing. I haven’t doubled-checked spellings > on my list, and some of the numbers are rough estimates, but here > goes: > > In the more open landscape of