Xylaria polymorpha, a.k.a. Dead-man's fingers
Unknown insect ova on apple twigsI try to take my camera with me everywhere, because you never know when you might find something cool to photograph. When I was up in the orchard pruning root suckers today, I saw these things. The dead man's fingers I'd seen in a book before, but this was my first "real life" sighting. The insect eggs? I don't know what critter they are from. When I described them to our entomologist, he thought maybe they were buffalo treehopper eggs. I took this picture to show him, and now he's baffled. If anyone knows what they are, I'd be happy to hear! They were laid on an abrasion on first year apple wood. What you see is pretty much life-sized - they might be a bit smaller, but not by much. I forgot to bring a ruler up to the orchard.
At any rate, I'm off for the weekend. Best to you all! I hope you find life interesting, and as painless as is possible.
Ta.
3 comments:
Wow! I'm thinking how excited Gus Grissom on CSI would get if he saw that insect ova!!!!! Great pictures. You shall be the Henri Cartier-Bresson of the natural world.
Those dead fingers are pretty creepy. I think I may have seen the cartoon version of them in a Scooby Doo episode.
I wouldn't have the faintest idea what kind of eggs those are. They look interesting
I suppose it would sound really dweeby if I said I was extremely jealous of your Dead Man's Fingers, huh? :)
And even worse to say that I'd been looking for those for a great while now...
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