NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
September
6, 2023
To respond
by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com .
Please
advise both the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com and the proofreader nicholsl@eastlink.ca if any
errors are noted in wording or photo labelling.
For more information on Nature Moncton, check the website at www.naturemoncton.com .
Edited by
Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Proofreading
courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
**Aldo
Dorio got nice photos of 4 Red Knots visiting
Hay Island on Tuesday. Hay Island seems to be a popular destination for the Red
Knot at this time of year, from sightings there in past years.
**Shannon Inman spotted the Great Egret continuing to enjoy the Waterside Marsh on Tuesday, getting some photographs of it looking very content.
John Inman photographed a Sharp-shinned Hawk silently perched in a yard White Cedar Tree, keeping an eye on the patrons visiting the Inman's Harvey bird feeder yard.
"There are a number of insects that bore into wood, but they aren’t necessarily eating the same things. Some, like termites, have very effective gut microorganisms that let them digest cellulose directly, something that is very hard to do. Other insects have less effective gut organisms and digest cellulose less effectively. Others eat fungus that is growing on the wood, while still others chew up the wood to extract sugars and other nutrients and just leave the cellulose and lignin behind. The metallic wood-boring beetle larvae are only indifferently good at digesting cellulose. They essentially chew up the wood, stripping apart the lignin and cellulose to free any trapped nutrients. Then they sort of lick off the sugars and proteins, leaving behind sawdust that they pack behind them into the hole that they made in the wood. They prefer the sapwood (the wood just under the bark) because this is where the nutrients are, leaving the dead wood in the center of the tree for other things to digest." (from The Backyard Arthropod Project)
(Editor’s note: possibly more than
what you want to know about wood boring beetles, but maybe one will look at
these beetles differently when seeing them on their mission.)
Fred also got a video of this beetle on its mission. Check out the link below:
**Occasionally, when one mushroom
invades another, it can certainly throw identification into disarray. This was
the case for Peter Gadd when he came across a Fly Agaric Mushroom (less common
red form) on the Miramichi Marsh that had been invaded by a second fungus to
make it look like it was having a bad hair day.
For some mushrooms, this is the norm. As an
example, the sought-after edible Lobster Mushroom is a Lactarius
(milk mushroom) or Russula species that is invaded by another fungus to
completely change the look of the mushroom as well as the flavour.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
.%20SEPT%205,%202023.%20PETER%20GADD.jpg)
