[NatureNS] Tupperville Nature Walk - notes and observations for

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Date: Sun, 15 May 2016 14:55:42 -0300
From: Bev Wigney <bkwigney@gmail.com>
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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