The fungus among us

In the last post I made a bold prediction: that the weather would warm up and the insects would become extra active (especially coming to the porch lights at night).  Well, I'm an Entomologist - not a Meteorologist - so what happened was we had a string of days where the mornings were overcast with showers, then in the afternoon it got hot and humid, but it would stay cool in the evening.  This is not the right recipe for insect activity, BUT it is the recipe for fungus.

Most people are familiar with the conspicuous fruiting body of mushrooms, but aside from this brief period in it's life cycle, a fungus is composed of a network of hair-like filamentous hyphae.  These hyphae grow through soil, dead trees, and other places that aren't typically exposed for us to see.  The fungus hyphae slowly feed on the nutrients of the dead tree and grow.  Now because the fungus hyphae grows best in dark, damp, warm places, this is something that a lot of people can overlook.  However, this isn't something overlooked by invertebrates!



(We are all familiar with the fruiting bodies of mushrooms like the ones above, but have a look at the fungus hyphae in these pics below)

We are all familiar with "Pill-Bugs", but after my childhood fascination faded I never paid much thought to them.  It turns out that they play the important role of decomposing dead wood.  I have too many brush piles to speak of, and these "Pill-Bugs" are feasting on the wood and fungus hyphae growing on the wood.  As the "Pill-Bugs" eat the wood they are mechanically grinding up the wood and digesting it into finer particles.  This breaks down the wood, which will eventually turn into soil.

I use quotations around "Pill-Bug" because it is not a "Bug"; it is a land crustacean!  It is still an invertebrate, but it is an isopod, which is more closely related to crabs, shrimp, and crayfish than it is to any insect.

Well, the short part of this story is that I went out looking for insect activity, I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find a lot of fungus and isopods hitting the high point of their year from how the local weather has given them just the right conditions to thrive.

Have a good day!
Andy