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>> Bev, Thanks for the interesting life history link for the FFBs — you'd wonder what the bracket fungus gets out of it, if anything, because I thought its spores are dispersed by wind, not by said beetles, who apparently can live in the same bracket for ~10 years, eating it up. Maybe the noxious glands on the beetle do confer some protection to the fungus from rodents, as well as on the beetles. Tom Eisner of Cornell Univ of blister beetle fame and mentioned in the piece was a real original who unfortunately passed away about five years ago. Steve On May 15, 2016, at 2:55 PM, Bev Wigney <bkwigney@gmail.com> wrote: > 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/1632