What’s going on out on the land?
Necrophila americana
Necrophila americana. This phrase isn’t a comment on the extinction culture of the North American colonial project, but instead it is the scientific name of a species within my favorite crew of insects : Carrion Beetles! The simple and concise common name of the particular species highlighted in this post is the American Carrion Beetle. Pretty easy to remember and pronounce. I love these little dudes.
Oak Apple Galls at Lake of Bays
Someone in our tracking crew had found a small, pale brown, hollow papery orb with spots on the surface with a couple of holes in it. I recognized it as an Oak Apple Gall, which my partner and I had found last year at Backus Woods. It wasn’t a green one, but it must be the same thing, right?
Last year, I may have looked up a bit on the Oak Apple Gall, but I no longer remember much. It’s like meeting someone again, but not remembering much of the details of your previous conversation. I had to ask some questions again, and here is some of what I have learned.
A mystery while tracking in Lake of Bays, 2022.08.13
The skill set of identifying a fresh trail with certainty in the jumbled quilt of the Summer forest floor is definitely an art and science with which I have little purchase… but a skill set that I do feel a growing confidence about is bone identification, and while making our way up the hill in the leaf little there was a small mandible laying fairly exposed with the lingual surface (the side which would be closest to the tongue in the living animal) facing the canopy.
Carrion Beetles pt. 2 : Elytra in the Pellet
While out with the Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship crew I came across some Owl pellets with some interesting finds. One of which caught my eye and pushed me to learn more about the Nicrophorinae subfamily of Carrion Beetles.
Carrion Beetles pt. 1 : Nicrophorus tomentosus
After taking a bunch of photos of the dead Robin I flipped the carcass over to see if I could see any visible signs of trauma. I noticed a wound on the back of the neck, but I got totally distracted when a small orangey-yellow thing crawled deep into the grass…