Zombie Fungus?
During a recent Hemlock Woolly Adelgid survey, one of our volunteers found a little yellow blob attached to a hemlock twig. The mass was clearly not HWA, but curiosity prompted me to bring it back to the office for examination. A closer look under the microscope revealed that the blob actually consisted of a powdery fungus encapsulating a dead spider! After a bit of research, I came to suspect that it might be some sort of Cordyceps; a genus of parasitic fungi capable of taking control of an arthropod, thus directing it to navigate to a favorable position for the fungi’s spores to...
Read MoreLesser Sac-winged Bat (Saccopteryx leptura)
This is a Lesser Sac-winged Bat (Saccopteryx leptura), very commonly found in the bathrooms and facilities at Cocobolo Nature Reserve! This individual started to call a bit after having been netted, and a few more bats quickly came to investigate. Sean was surprised how close some of them got to him on his way out of the bathroom with his new friend, but it sounds like it was a friendly mammal meeting nonetheless. Photographed by RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser for the Meet Your Neighbours global biodiversity project in Panama while on assignment for the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural...
Read More
