#5 Strange Stinkhorns

It could be the pink wrinkled paw of a weird and unknown creature hatching from an egg in an ancient forest, but it's just a fungus in a garden.....

Local parks, reserves and botanic gardens can be excellent places to observe nature up close. The four stinkhorn fungi that I am featuring here were all photographed at the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens at Heatherbrae on the Pacific Highway north of Newcastle.

What are stinkhorns?

Stinkhorn fungi belong to the Clathraceae family. Most have an absurd eye-catching appearance that varies from phallic-shaped or tentacled, basket-shaped to draped in delicate lacy skirts. But all have two common features: they emerge from a terrestrial egg-like structure, and they produce a foul smelling sticky spore mass.

Aseroe rubra with its spore-coated red tentacles emerging from an egg-like sac

The spherical or flattened glutinous egg forms on or just below the ground surface, and if dissected reveals a fully developed compressed fruiting body awaiting the right conditions to emerge and mature. The image above shows the Starfish Stinkhorn, Aseroe rubra, emerged from the ruptured 'egg'.

Starfish or Anemone Fungus, Aseroe rubra, is found in Australia's eastern states in moist mulched gardens as well as alpine grasslands and mountain woodlands. As far as I am aware, it is not found in the west, but if residents of the western and dry inland parts of Australia have seen this growing in their areas I'd be interested to hear about it.

There are more pictures and observations of Aseroe rubra at my Australian Fung Blog.

A Starfish Fungus with its hollow stalk, divided arms and brown spore mass

My first sighting of the Starfish Fungus was in the moist rainforest of Barrington Tops National Park east of the Hunter Valley, but since then I have found several, and often massed displays, at the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens. The preferred habitat of many stinkhorns is mulched gardens, so therefore they can make regular appearances in home gardens.

Reproduction

Stinkhorn fungi stink for a reason. Flies and other insects that are attracted to the smell of rotting flesh or faeces are drawn to the foul odour of the fungi. The odour emanates from a greenish-brown gooey substance (gleba) that contains spores. Visiting insects find this slime delectable and trample in it as they feast, then unwittingly spread the fungus spores enabling the stinkhorn life-cycle to continue elsewhere.

Phallus rubicundus is a common stinkhorn popping up in mulched gardens and rainforest humus

Phallic-looking fruiting bodies emerge from egg-like sacs and can elongate several inches within a period of a few hours, making these striking and almost obscene growths a novelty in suburban gardens and lawns. The novelty soon wears off, however, as the pong of the fungi reaches the kitchen window. But I will admit that my olfactory glands were not offended and I think their unsavoury reputation is somewhat exaggerated.

But as odd and repugnant as they might appear, they will do no harm to your garden and will wilt and decay within a very short period of time.

Note in the Phallus rubicundus image above the stem is perforated and hollow. It resembles the texture of foam rubber. The conical cap coated in a sticky spore mass is separated from the stem, joined only at the summit. This separated cap is an important feature in identifying it from similar phallic stinkhorns.

Lantern Fungus

I have only encountered one flurry of Lantern Fungi, Lysurus mokusin, at the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens. The tip of the pinkish-orange stalk is branched into 4 to 6 short arms which often remain joined. The number of arms corresponds with the number of angular ribs on the stalk and the gooey brown spore mass is concentrated in the vertical depressions between the arms.

An aging Lantern Stinkhorn with spreading arms

Mutinus borneensis is a white stinkhorn, narrower than the previous two orange phallic fungi I've illustrated here. On emerging from the small glutinous sac, it also elongates at a remarkable rate, attracting flies to the orange-brown pointed tip coated in brown spore bearing gleba.

Egg-like sacs of Mutinus borneensis generally make a massed display

Wood chips and organic matter provide ideal habitat for stinkhorn fungi, so mulched gardens and local parks are likely to support occasional outbreaks of these strange but fascinating growths. Observe them if you have the opportunity. In some parts of the world it is reputed that these jelly eggs and spongy fetid fungi end up on the dinner table, but not in this household!

Digging them out or poisoning them will not rid your garden of these odd creations. They will be fleeting, so enjoy their brief existence.

Via my blog counter, I notice that there are many international visitors to this page on some of Australia's interesting stinkhorn fungi. I would be most interested to know if my pictures and observations have helped others identify stinkhorns from other countries. If readers feel inclined to leave a brief message via the 'comments' tag below or my email contact on the right of the page, I would be most appreciative.

#4 A Spider and its Offspring

Have you ever stumbled into a huge spider's web amongst the shrubbery or behind the shed and had to fight your way out of the clutches of the silk?

This common garden beauty is the likely owner of that web

As its common name suggests, the Golden Orb-weaver Spider, Nephila edulis, spins an orb web of golden silk. The extensive semi-permanent web is remarkably strong and makes a formidable sight when several spiders overlap webs creating a dense and almost impassable barrier. Walking into a mass of Golden Orb Spider webs either in daylight or the dark is enough to make even the toughest Aussie bloke squeal like a girl (now, correct me if I'm wrong please) .

A luckless cicada is no match for the strength of a Golden Orb-weaver's web

But the Golden Orb really is a gentle giant. Despite a mature female's body size of up to 3cms (excluding legs), these spiders are not aggressive and will dart to the top of the web if disturbed. Being diurnal, they spend the day in their web protected from birds and wasps by a network of subsidiary threads safeguarding the main web.

Moulting

A spider must shed it's external skeleton in order to grow. This is a complex process whereby enzymes dissolve the layer between the skin and the rest of the body, and a new skin begins to form below the old one. The nerves stay connected to the sensory organs on her old skin so that she is not deprived of essential signals from the sensory organs on her legs.

The skin starts tearing at her jaws and the crack enlarges to the abdomen. When the skin has become completely loose the spider falls out of her old skin.

A Golden Orb limp from having just moulted hanging below her old skin with a male lurking above

Spiders can often be seen with one or more missing legs, but after moulting these lost legs regenerate. Isn't nature amazing!

Mating

Spider sex is a lot more intriguing than one might initially imagine! While the female Golden Orb-weaver Spider's body measures over 20mm, the male is a mere 5mm. If you take into account the female's fettish to feast on her suitor once he's served his purpose, then the male appears to be courting danger. But like most males a courting, he can be quite resourceful.

The male Golden Orb lurks on the perimeter of the female's web feeding on left-overs, waiting for a mating opportunity. He then begins his mating sequence after the female has caught prey, therefore limiting the likelihood of becoming the female's next meal.

Spiders have a pair of feelers (or more correctly, pedipalps, or palps) located on the jaw. The male's palps have a bulb on the end that is used to hold sperm to be injected into the female. First, the male must eject semen from his genital opening under the abdomen then suck it up into his palps ready for insertion into the female.

In the image below you can see the swollen bulb on the tiny male's palps. Compare the shape of the male's palps to the female's palps in the third picture. Also in the image below, the male is hovering at the female's genital opening while she is limp from moulting and looks suspiciously like he is taking advantage of the incapacited female. Notice also, the screw-like extension on the end of the palp that is used to gain access to the female genital opening.

A male possibly attempting to mate with an incapacitated female

The female will wrap her eggs in a sac of golden silk

After several months the Golden Orb hatchlings will emerge from the egg sac and balloon away on the breeze. I first noticed the spiderlings in the image below emerging in June from an egg sac that was deposited in March. The tiny Golden Orb-weavers re-entered the sac and emerged again in August. They eventually disappeared in September after a total of six months.

Golden Orb hatchlings are less than 1mm in diameter

The hatchlings then must endure the hazards of predators and weather. Hopefully some will survive to grow and repeat the process. Since observing and researching these awesome spiders hanging in their shiny webs in my backyard, I have come to respect them and their complex lives.

A young female Golden Orb-weaver displays beautiful colouration that will fade to a silky light brown as it matures

Golden Orb weavers have relatively poor eyesight as they do not rely heavily on sight for catching prey. They are reluctant to bite and are not considered very toxic.

Perhaps next time you see one of these impressive spiders hanging overhead you will also appreciate their place in the environment - they're not as scary as they might first appear.

#3 A Cricket earns his Wings

Until I found this Raspy Cricket on my back porch, I thought the only crickets that lived here were the black field crickets that we used to use for trout bait.

Impressive fellow, isn't he?

Observing a Striped Raspy Cricket Paragryllacris combusta (family Gryllacrididae) both as a nymph and an adult in my backyard was a real treat. When I first spotted the wingless nymph it was clinging to the eaves above the kitchen window.

The nymph's long thread-like antennae were coated in strands of silk as it wandered through a spider's web. Consequently the antennae became tangled around the cricket's front legs and he spent several minutes cleaning them. It was fascinating to watch this grooming process from an up-close vantage point.

Cricket nymph gets in a bit of a tangle.....

.....then grooms his sensitive antennae

But as I moved in for a closer look, I soon found out why this cricket's common name was 'Raspy Cricket'. Initially uncomfortable about my intrusion, he raised his quivering rear-end and emitted a sound that could be likened to two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together. I presume that mouth could inflict a reasonable bite too!

Two days later I was excited to find a winged adult Striped Raspy Cricket in the shed. It was pale and lethargic and appeared to be recovering from a moult. It soon became brighter and more active, although not yet prepared to fly, so I had an opportunity to further study it's appearance and behaviour. They shed their skin 5 to 7 times as they grow, then become winged adults.

My hand gives a size perspective of the adult cricket

While the cricket was resting on a cardboard box I spent time checking out the finer details of this impressive insect. Raspy Crickets are expert climbers hiding by day under bark or in abandoned insect tunnels and feeding at night on a variety of insects and some vegetation.

They are also well equipped for digging and cutting through grass roots with wide 'blades' and sharp claws on their feet (see a close up of front feet in first photo).

In the following picture you can see a structure at the rear end of the cricket that resembles testes. This is another indicator that this male cricket may have recently moulted or mated, and although this testes-like feature is part of his mating aparatus, it is not testes as these are internal and much larger. These external parts will withdraw into the body when he has hardened up or 'readjusted' himself.

Rear-end features of male Raspy Cricket

The male Raspy Cricket is readily identifiable by the presence of the two rear-end spikes, whereas a female will have a long sabre-like ovipositor on the back end which they use to insert eggs deep into the ground or bark according to species.

The picture below shows a forward facing curved spur on the front leg. Both sexes have the spurs so it isn't something that only one sex requires. Unfortunately the biology of a lot of our insects is very poorly known, and the purpose of these spurs has not been recorded.

A close-up of the adult Raspy Cricket shows many features including the front leg spur

Amateur nature enthusiasts can, and do, make useful and important observations and discoveries in the world of nature.

#2 A Dragon's New Clothes

Meet Scruffy the Dragon, one of my delightful Christmas visitors

Don't be fooled by what appears to be a cheeky grin. This is one of the dragon's agressive poses, but more about this reptile's defense strategies later.

Eastern Bearded Dragons, Pogona barbata, are large robust lizards found in dry woodlands in the east from Cooktown in far north Queensland to the southeastern corner of South Australia. Luckily, for nature lovers, the Bearded Dragon's territory often extends into urban and rural areas.

I was surprised to find a visiting dragon lounging on the garden bench in my backyard. Dragon lizards can often be seen basking on top of roadside fence posts in the sunshine and once you learn to recognise their distinctive pose with flattened head pointing skyward, their normally well camouflaged shape will stand out.

A Bearded Dragon's typical basking posture

If approached slowly and quietly, these lizards are easily observed. I sat on the garden edge a metre from this lizard to check out it's features, but they'll let you know if they feel threatened by your presence.

A Bearded Dragon's defense strategies

The Bearded Dragon is so called because of it's ability to flare out the skin in the throat region to produce what appears to be a rigid spiny plate or 'beard' when it feels threatened or is showing dominance in territorial or mating disputes. The defending lizard will also raise it's head high and open it's mouth wide to display a bright yellow mouth interior.

Once my backyard visitor showed me who was boss, we got along just fine

A Bearded Dragon will also raise it's body in an arch on outstretched legs in an attempt to intimidate whatever creature is menacing it.

A smaller Bearded Dragon in my backyard in an upstretched defensive position

After Scruffy got used to me pointing my camera at him, he just lay there sunning himself like a lizard. He even allowed me to share the seat with him.

Flat out like a lizard in the sun

A small patch of flakey opaque skin on the back of the neck indicated that the lizard was beginning to moult. It was still wandering around my backyard late in the afternoon so I was lucky to observe it's 'before and after' appearance.

Shedding the skin

Bearded Dragons are quite leisurely about shedding, dropping patches of old skin as they move about. This fellow left a trail of skin fragments as it negotiated my garden.

The Dragon's skin clearly shedding in patches

Humidity and water can aid a lizard's shedding process, so perhaps the dragons were attracted to my yard by the dish of water I have burried to ground level in my herb garden. Rocks half fill the dish so that no small creatures will find themselves in water that is too deep. There were plenty of remnants of lizard skin in and around the dish of water.

I was almost tempted to give his scruffy face a good scratch under the chin like a dog

As the Bearded Dragon's habitat shrinks due to urban and suburban sprawl, you might find that these charming characters visit you regularly.

Enjoy their company if they wander into your yard, ensuring their safety by supervising pets and children.