A Mystery Solved

This orange organism growing on the surfaces of fallen leaves in the woods has stumped me for years. I had long thought it was some sort of slime mold (Myxomycota), and every spring when I saw the little orange patches it forms on dead leaves and deer dung in the forest I would go searching websites to find out what this strange slime mold was. I never did figure it out until today when I looked very carefully at the cup-like structures and thought that maybe this is no slime mold but a fungus in Ascomycota (cup fungi). Within a few minutes I came across several photos of an orange fungus that looked very similar to this one. Not only that but I solved another new mystery, which was the white fungus with brown cups growing with the orange one. The answer to both mysteries was found at Sociedad MicológicaI Extremeña.

Pseudombrophila and Byssonectria

The orange fungus is Byssonectria, and the white one with dark brown cups rimmed with lighter brown is Pseudombrophila. Both are “vernal” fungi, that is, fungi that fruit in the cooler part of early spring. As for whether one is being eaten by the other, it only looks that way. These species grow in the forest on animal dung and where animals (deer in this case) have urinated. The Byssonectria may be B. terrestris (see key) , but I have not found out what the other one is apart from Pseudombrophila. Both species are classed in:

Kingdom – Fungi
Phylum – Ascomycota
Class – Pezizimycetes
Order – Peziales
Family – Pyronemataceae

SOURCES

Bysonectria terrestris at Sociedad MicológicaI Extremeña.

Harmaja, H. ( 986). Studies on the Pezizales. Karstenia 26: 41

Pfister, D. H. (1993). A Synopsis of the North American Species of Byssonectria (Pezizales) with Comments on the Ontogeny of the Two Species. Mycologia, 85(6): 952-962.

Seaver, F. J. (1951). The North American Cup-fungi (Inoperculates). Published by the author.

Wordless Wednesday

A butterfly

Mustard White Butterfly (Pieris oleracea)

I saw this butterfly yesterday while working in my garden spreading old hay around rhubarb and currant bushes. It had probably just emerged from its chrysalis earlier in the morning and was finishing up drying its wings. The butterfly is the Mustard White Butterfly (Pieris oleracea) a species native to North America and occurs in Canada from the Northwest Territories south to Alberta and then east to the Atlantic seaboard. In the US it can be found from North Dakota to Maine.

The green larva with a single white or pale yellow lateral line and small black spots feed on members of the mustard family (Brassicaceae), such as rock cress (Arabis spp., Boechera spp., and Draba spp.), cuckoo flower and bittercress (Cardamine spp.), and toothwort (Dentaria spp.). There are usually two or three generations a summer with the last generation overwintering as a chrysalis.

Adult Mustard White Butterflies come in a spring and summer forms. The one in the photo is the spring form. Summer forms have less dark shading on the wing upper surfaces and the lower surface veins are also less dark. Adults feed on nectar usually from mustard family plants.

Previously Mustard White Butterfly was considered to be in the species Pieris napi, a European species commonly called the Green-veined White. They are regarded as distinct enough to be classed as separate species although some authorities consider the North American P. oleracae to be a subspecies of P. napi (synonym Artogeia napi) calling it Pieris napi subsp. oleracea. P. oleracae differs from P. napi by having chalky white upper wings while P. napi has dark spots and dark margins on the upper wings. Another difference is the tolerance of P. napi for garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) which is toxic to the larvae of P. oleraceae and thus a serious concern for the species survival where this plant occurs in North America to which it is not native.

Taxonomy

Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Papilionoidea (Butterflies and Skippers)
Family Pieridae (Whites, Sulphurs, Yellows)
Subfamily Pierinae (Whites)
Tribe Pierini (Cabbage Whites, Checkered Whites, Albatrosses)
Genus/species: Pieris oleracea

SOURCES

Bowden, S. R. (1979). Subspecific Variation in Butterflies: Adaptation and Dissected Polymorphism in Pieris (Artogeia) (Pieridae). Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society
33(2):77-111.

Heinen R., Gols R., and Harvey J. A. (2016). Black and Garlic Mustard Plants Are Highly Suitable for the Development of Two Native Pierid Butterflies. Environmental Entomology, Vol. 45 (3):671–676.

Mustard White (Pieris oleracea) (Harris, 1829) at the Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility website.

Pieris oleracea at the Wikipedia website.

Species Pieris oleracea – Mustard White – Hodges#4195.1 at the Bug Guide website.

A Few More Spring Flowers

Red maple flowers (Acer rubrum)

Staminate catkins of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) floating in a pond.

Tea-leaf willow pistillate flowers (Salix planifolia)

Prairie willow staminate flowers (Salix humilis)

More flowers on shrubs and trees from around here. Trees like red maple (Acer rubrum) and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) and shrubs such as tag alder (Alnus incana), hazel (Corylus spp.), and willow (Salix spp.) are the first flowers of spring appearing before the more familiar spring ephemeral wildflowers that grow in forests.

Soon there will be other flowers in bloom. Hepatica (Anemone americana), stalked sedge (Carex pedunculata), and wood rush (Luzula acuminata) will come into flower in the next few days. These low growing plants occupy spaces on the forest floor and today on one of my rambles I noticed that many already have unopened flower buds.