This punked out fly distracted me from the mushrooms I was going to post today. This is the second time I’ve photographed and posted pics of one but this time I just had to make a positive ID. Once again BugGuide.net has come to my rescue. ‘Punk A$$ Fly’ isn’t a proper name no matter how accurate the description is. I would like to introduce you to:

Archytas apicifer

From Wallpaper-1920×1080

At over a half inch these are fairly large flies. Contrary to the punk/goth look the adults are more interested in flowers which they feed upon. It’s their young that are the stuff nightmares are made of. The larvae are parasitoids that develop on moths. So relax and get a good nights sleep, they won’t be sucking out your life juices except in dreams.

It’s a toss up between which post has the better images of the white faced fly. You can see the other photos on: Bad Hair Day.

I also strongly advise scrolling to the bottom and staring into the eyes of the Hypno-Frog until ready to do my bidding.

No? Then just take one more look at Spike and we’ll move along and see what Stewy is up to.

If Stewy could talk

What’s that stupid dog nosing around for now?

Not again. It’s one thing to go barking up the wrong tree but getting stuck up there is another.

Out of the Woods
Stewy is playing ‘catch up’ after Pookey and I left him behind.

Goldenrod is one of my favorite wildflowers. Late summer brings fields of yellow filled with predators. Among the flowers hides small sizes with big surprises and it doesn’t take long to find one. Finding a successful hunter just takes a little more time.

It must have come as a big surprise when the spider introduced itself to the bee.

Turkey Surprise
Stalking turkeys is tough. There are far too many eyes in a flock to sneak up on them. The flock knew I was around. We had spotted each other at a long distance and they immediately started to move off.

Movement catches the eye. I would never have known the frog was there if it hadn’t moved.
Too late to hide from my camera now.

Nothing unexpected about finding mature puffballs on a log.

What happens when you poke a dried puffball filled with spores? I got lucky and got a semi-focused photo of the spores ejected. They disperse rapidly and trying to keep the camera steady in one hand while poking with the other is tough. It took a number of tries and by the time I was done there must have been millions of spores floating around.

I know there’s something else but can’t seem to put my finger on it.

Oh yea, this will be the second time I posted my spore finger.

AKA: the Blushing Bracket.

The underside lends itself to both common names. The pore surface looks like a maze and has a tendency to bruise reddish / brown / salmon when handled.

Daedaleopsis confragosa

The upper surface is wrinkled and concentrically ridged. It grows on dead wood and occasionally from wounds on living deciduous trees. Very rarely on conifers. The thin maze flat polypore mushroom grows up to 6 inches across.

The pore surface:
look close and you can see it starting to blush just above my thumb.

My field guides say it’s a tough mushroom but they never mentioned how rubbery a fresh one is. They can be folded without breaking, just like my wife’s pancakes.

They are tough. It takes a good bit of effort to rip one apart. I had to put the camera down and use both hands. I think this is the main reason they’re not considered edible. It would be like eating a rubber sink stopper.

I hear crickets chirping in the background. Exciting huh?
Well it was for me – I rarely get to identify the mushrooms I find.

Speaking of crickets and backgrounds: I’ve linked the cricket image to my Picasa background album.

The good news – no more multiple copies of wallpaper images in different sizes.
The bad news – I have a choice of 400 or 640 pixel width I can display. The 400 is too small for my taste and the 640 too large for my blog template. Looks like I’m going to have to renovate the template again. (if I can remember how I managed to do it in the first place)

Many people believe crickets chirp by rubbing their legs together. After looking at the photo that seems improbable. Crickets chirp by rubbing their wings together. The sound is made by rubbing a special organ (stridulatory) covered with teeth (serration) at the bottom of each wing. Only males chirp. The warmer they are the faster they chirp

Cricket is also a game I’ll never understand.
I guess that’s because the only real exposure I had to the game was watching Monty Python skits back in the day.