The curious conehead

11 Tuesday Oct 2016

Tags

British cricket, bush cricket, Conocephalus discolor, cricket, Long-winged conehead

CC: ‘I didn’t much like being imprisoned in that white tub, you know.’
Me: ‘ Sorry! We just wanted to look at you more closely.’

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CC: ‘Well, I don’t blame you. I am rather cute, aren’t I?’
Me: ‘You certainly are but that’s not why we wanted to look at you.’

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CC: ‘Oh. What were you looking at me for then?’
Me: ‘We wanted to check what you were.’

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CC: ‘And what am I?’
Me: ‘You’re a type of bush cricket called a Long-winged conehead.’

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CC: ‘How can you tell that?’
Me: ‘Well, you have a green body and long, brown wings, a brown stripe down your back and a pointed head.’

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CC: ‘I’m not sure I like the name conehead. Couldn’t you find me a better name than that?’
Me: ‘Well, your scientific name is Conocephalus discolor. Is that better?’

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CC: ‘Oh, yes. That makes me sound very special. What else do you know about me?’
Me: ‘You mostly eat grass, though you don’t mind the odd small insect to snack on. You’re mostly found in the south of Britain, though some of your more adventurous friends are moving northwards. And you like living in a variety of places, from farm and grassland and wooded areas to coastal reedbeds and even boggy marshes.’

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CC: ‘I can see I have no secrets from you.’
Me: ‘I’m sure there’s a lot I don’t know about you though, like you, I am curious about the world around me. Now I think it’s time you flew off and found a tasty bit of grass for your lunch.’

The fungus that looks like porcelain

10 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by sconzani in autumn, fungi, nature, parks, trees

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

beech trees, fungus, Heath Park, Oudemansiella mucida, Porcelain Fungus, strobilurins

I saw my very first Oudemansiella mucida, the Porcelain Fungus, last Friday, during a wander around Cardiff’s Heath Park and knew at once what it was. Such immediacy of identification does not happen often in the world of the fungi fanciers so this was a rare and much-valued moment. But this is one fungus that is easy to recognise.

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Firstly, it lives exclusively on beech, and I have been keeping a close watch on a huge old beech tree that came down in a big storm last winter, which, much to their credit, was sawn into huge chunks and left at the woodland edge by Cardiff Council staff. The beech is now providing a home to many small creatures, not just to fungi. Secondly, it is a clean, almost translucent white, like my granny’s tea cups used to be, and its caps are frequently covered in a thin layer of slime (hence the second part of their scientific name: mucida refers to this transparent mucus). That’s not as revolting as it sounds – the shiny surface makes these little beauties shimmer in the sunshine.

Interestingly, this fungus produces chemicals called strobilurins, which have anti-fungal properties. The Porcelain Fungus uses them to inhibit and even attack opposition fungi in order to protect its territory but scientists have refined these same chemicals to produce anti-fungal agents that can protect crops from fungal attacks. Like so many fungi, the Porcelain fungus is beautiful and utile.

UK Fungus Day 2016

09 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

#UKFD16, #UKFungusDay, fungus, Glamorgan Fungus Group, Parasol mushroom, Parc Slip Nature Reserve, UK Fungus Day

The sun shone and the people came, full of interest and enthusiasm … but where were the fungi? It had been a dry week and, as Parc Slip Nature Reserve sits on top of an old coal spoil tip, the ground doesn’t retain moisture well, so the fungi were nowhere to be found.

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Luckily, Glamorgan Fungus Group president Mike Bright is a man of forethought and ingenuity. When he checked the site of the walk yesterday and found it virtually barren, he spent the rest of the day – six whole hours! – scouring other locations for fungi specimens and, thanks to his super-human efforts, today’s walk was a huge success. Mike led us on a wander in the woods and combined that with a ‘show and tell’ of what he’d found the previous day, and everyone was mightily impressed. I reckon he must take the prize for the best organiser for UK Fungus Day 2016, and for finding the biggest parasol mushroom!

Fun with fungi

08 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#UKFungusDay, fungus, UK Fungus Day

Here in Britain tomorrow, Sunday 9 October, is UK Fungus Day. I’ll be joining my friends from the Glamorgan Fungus Group at the Wildlife Trust’s Parc Slip Nature Reserve for fungi fun and forays, and I hope you can all get out and enjoy some fungi spotting this Fungus Day. Check out the website for all the events that are happening throughout Britain.

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‘Fungi are tremendously important to human society and the planet we live on. They provide fundamental products including foods, medicines, and enzymes important to industry. They are also the unsung heroes of nearly all terrestrial ecosystems, hidden from view but inseparable from the processes that sustain life on the planet.’ ~ Kew Royal Botanic Gardens website

An under-recorded square kilometre

07 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

bioblitz, biodiversity, biodiversity in Wales, biological diversity, biological recording, biological records, SEWBReC

After our morning’s biodiversity recording session at Porthkerry and a rather scrummy pub lunch, our SEWBReC team took up the challenge of how many species we could discover in a one-kilometre square that borders Cardiff Airport, a square where only 15 species of anything had previously been recorded. Well, even a desert has more life in it than that, and we had fields and country lanes edged with hedgerows to explore so off we set.

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Some of the hedgerows had recently been savagely trimmed and, though sunny, it was blowing a gale so conditions weren’t exactly perfect. But we are a dedicated team! We scanned and we scoured, we probed and we combed, we turned over and peered under, we inspected and we scrutinised. And at the end of two hours we had a preliminary list of 85 species, with some uncertainties to be verified, some ambiguities to be resolved and some experts to be consulted. What a thoroughly enjoyable, eminently satisfying day it was!

Each month SEWBReC provides maps and information about poorly recorded 1km squares in south east Wales, in the hope of filling in the gaps in their maps. If you live in the area, or even if you’re just visiting, you can help fill those gaps. See here for more information.

Bioblitzing at Porthkerry Country Park

06 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by sconzani in nature, parks

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

bioblitz, biodiversity, biological recording, biological recording centre, biological records, Mary Gillham Archive Project, Porthkerry Country Park, SEWBReC

As I volunteer on the Mary Gillham Archive Project, which is hosted by SEWBReC (the South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre), I got invited along to SEWBReC’s staff outing yesterday. And what do records centre staff do for a staff outing? Why we go looking for more biodiversity records, of course! I was in my element, and it was so nice being with like-minded people who also spend a lot of time standing and staring at bushes and trees, and can take an hour to progress a hundred metres. For once, I wasn’t the ‘strange’ one!
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We spent the morning by the seaside at Porthkerry Country Park, on the south Wales coast near Barry, a first visit for me to this beautiful place, which ‘contains 220 acres of woodland and meadows in a sheltered valley that leads to a pebble beach and spectacular cliffs’. We barely scratched the surface, so I will certainly be heading back to explore further. Our list of species found currently stands at 93 but we have a few more to check so I feel sure we’ll push our total over the 100 mark before we’re finished. The sun shone on the recording team at Porthkerry!

The Llama panorama

05 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by sconzani in animals, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

llama, llama communication, llama in Bolivia, llama wool

Did you know:

The llama is sturdy and sure-footed, making it the ideal beast to carry heavy loads along the narrow mountain trails of South America.

The fine undercoat of wool on llamas is used to make clothing and handcrafts, and the more coarse outer wool is often made into rugs.

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Llamas mate lying down – it’s called a kush position (sounds cushy to me!) – which is rather unusual for such a big animal and, also unusual for their size, their mating is no quick fling. Instead, they’re at it for between 20 and 45 minutes, plus the sexually aroused male makes a gargling sound – called an orgle – before and during the mating process.

Female llamas have very short tongues, preventing them from licking their newly born babies (called crias) so, instead of bonding with their offspring through the licking process, the mummy llamas nuzzle their babies and hum to them.

Llamas are family animals, sharing a strong familial bond and looking out for each other. When threatened, a llama will emit a warning bray to alert the rest of the herd, and llamas often hum to each other as a way of communicating. As well as these sounds, they also make groaning noises or produce a ‘mwa’ noise when they’re afraid or angry. Strange then that humans use ‘mwa’ as an expression for sending someone a kiss.

a large herd of llamas on the hills behind La Paz, in Bolivia

Watch your tongue!

04 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by sconzani in fungi, nature, trees

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Alder, Alder tongue, Alnus glutinosa, fungal gall, fungus, galls on alder cones, Taphrina amentorum, Taphrini alni

If you’re out walking through parks and woodlands this month, keep an eye out for these strange-looking growths on the cones of Alder trees (Alnus glutinosa). They’re caused by the fungus Taphrina alni (also known as Taphrina amentorum), common name Alder tongue, a plant pathogen that uses chemicals to persuade the trees to produce these weird and wonderful tongue-shaped galls.

Though common in Western Europe, Alder tongue only appeared in Britain in the 1940s but has now become quite common throughout the isles as spores produced by the ‘tongues’ are easily carried on the wind to other trees. Sometimes the Alder cones have just one tongue, sometimes they have several, usually all emerging from the same spot on the cone and often curling into intriguing shapes (spot the dragons in the images below!). The tongues start off green in colour but then vary from yellow and orange to pink and red (which really would look very tongue-like) before becoming brown and black as they age. They can, in fact, be seen on Alder trees throughout the year, though, for some reason, I’m seeing more of them now, in the autumn months.

‘Dedicated Naturalist’: What is a cow?

03 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by sconzani in 'Dedicated Naturalist' Project, animals, nature

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

cow, cow as a machine, dairy cow, Dr Mary Gillham, fun description of a cow, Mary Gillham Archive Project

A snippet from my volunteer work on the ‘Dedicated Naturalist’ Project, helping to decipher and digitise, record and publicise the life’s work of naturalist extraordinaire, Dr Mary Gillham. This piece is from Mary’s days as a Land Girl during the Second World War and is, it seems, ‘a dairying student’s concept of a cow’.

A cow is a completely automatic milk manufacturing machine. It is encased in untanned leather and mounted on four movable vertical supports, one on each corner.

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The front end contains the cutting and grinding machine, as well as headlights, air inlet and exhaust, and bumper and foghorn. At the rear is the dispensing apparatus and an automatic fly swatter.

The central portion houses a hydrochemical conversion plant. This consists of four fermentation and storage tanks connected in series by an intricate network of flexible plumbing. This section also contains the heating plant complete with automatic temperature controls, pumping station and main ventilating system. The waste processing and disposal apparatus is located at the rear of this central section.