Molluscan Mycophagy Reaches 100 Observations

Molluscan Mycophagy has reached 100 observations!

In its first 5 months and 2 weeks, 100 observations have been added to Molluscan Mycophagy. Sixty-seven observers have documented 26 species, with the top three species observed all slugs native to western North America. I look forward very much to using this project in my future research, and an early thanks go to @kathawk @cedric_lee @dpom @anudibranchmom @robberfly and @carita for making and curating their observations. If anyone knows someone good with their fungus identifications I am looking for a collaborator(s) to help with identifications. Please tag them here. Thanks everyone! I look forward to seeing the next hundred observations.

The best part for me thus far though has been the beauty of these observations.

We have observations of banana slugs putting the fungus down: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4911428.
Check out this striking white banana slug eating a mushroom: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4242983.
And this de-cap-itation: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4904546.

From my field observations, the tail-droppers are highly fungivorous. This is probably my current favorite observations in the project, a Reticulate Taildropper eating a Fly Algaric: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4574763.
I also love this image of the a Yellow-bordered Taildropper eating the spongy surface of spore pores: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2458063.
One of the observations is the first Prophysaon dubium observation on iNaturalist: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5215960.

Another native slug, this Black Westernslug near San Jose is obviously fond of the fungus: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4747077.

Snails love shrooms too, check out this fungus feeding frenzy from Anguispira:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1604517.
Or this Helminthoglypta, one of a few individuals in this genus documented by @tlawson going at the gills: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1338524.

Surprisingly, even some introduced species of slugs provide strikingly beautiful observations, such as this Leopard Slug eating purple mushrooms: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4271467, this Arion on a large burnt-orange cap: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5207049, and this Ambigolimax gorging on gills: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5077964.

Posted on May 16, 2017 05:24 AM by pileated