Mussels and their Mantles

In my post of our hike to Battelle Darby Creek, Jennie left the following comment:

"I'm interested in the "beautifully colored fish and fresh water mussels with their bizarre life histories". Recently read about the bitterlings laying eggs in the siphons of mussels, but didn't think that was a local phenomena. Love hearing all the co-evolved mutualisms. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction!"

Well Jennie- Instead of the fish laying their eggs in the mussels, the mussels actually have to get their larvae onto the gills of fish- believe it or not. And they have actually evolved lures to do this. I have photographed this phenomenon in May, 2008 with a plain pocketbook, Lampsilis cardium, as pictured above, and presented in video below.




I also quickly found these other videos on YouTube- These are great views Also- Dr. Tom Waters of Ohio State has posted these amazing videos on his website that are also must views.




A look at the lures of the wavy rayed-lampmussel.



And this video shows a smallmouth bass pecking at the mantle lure of a wavy rayed lamp mussel.




And this clip shows three fish, but one isn't a fish at all, it is the mantle lure of an unidentified mussel species. And I agree with Jennie. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

Tom

This is my contribution to this week's Camera Critters.

Fowler Woods Sate Nature Preserve

A kingnut aka shellbark hickory (Carya laciniosa)

A few shots from my trip today to Fowler Woods State Nature Preserve. The purpose of the trip was to help my colleague from the Forest Service collect Ash seeds. These other things caught my eye as well.

A western chorus frog.

A pumpkin ash (Fraxinus profunda) samara that had pierced a spicebush (Lindera benzoin) leaf.

Slug and eggs.

To learn more about Fowler Woods State Nature Preserve, go here.

And to see more pictures of animals, check out Camera Critters.

Rock Hard Mussels

After our high waters receded, weathered dead mussel shells (sometimes called sub-fossils) that have been scoured up by the surging water are strewn about the river and banks. Here are some of the more interesting shells from my walk on Sunday morning.

The little ones are non-native Asian clams.

More Asian clams, there are millions of these in the Olentangy

And finally, ancient sea creatures embedded in some Delaware limestone.

Tom

Dragons and Damsels (and other cool stuff) are Here

Summer, welcome, you are here. And with you came the mussel display that I captured via video and still images. And yesterday, i took my first damselfly images of the season. They started to fly about a week ago, and have been gradually gaining numbers to where almost every patch of water-willow has a dozen or so residents. Here's a teneral, or just hatched stream damselfly. It is either a female or it is a male that hasn't gotten its color quite yet, and I'm not brave enough to ID them until they mature. It should be only a few days or so before they obtain their full coloration.
Here is an up close view of their eye through my Canon 60 mm macro lens. I was quite surprised this damsel let me approach so closely, but they are more clumsy and less docile when they are still teneral.
One of our most common butterflies, the pearl crescent. I also saw one mourning cloak fluttering about the understory of the floodplain forest, but it was much more wary than this crescent, which was hanging out in the tall grass of the active recreational area of the park.
And finally, this little creature caught my attention this evening in my backyard as I was setting up to get shots of a blue dasher dragonfly. I believe that it is a crab spider in the family Thomisidae. It almost reminds me of some deranged cartoon character. It sits in wait, ready to ambush any insect that may come by, closing its long outstretched legs. I saw this individual take a few swipes but it never caught anything. It was incredibly patient as well. The front lens of the camera was only about two inches from the insect in this shot.

And those are just some of the things that I have been observing, I have not taken enough insect pictures this summer, and soon we'll be back in winter lamenting the lack of arthropods!

Tom

The Mystery Creature Strikes Again

Last fall, Megan and I were wading in the Olentangy River looking for fish and she suddenly stopped, stared down into the water, and with quite a strange look and a point said "WHAT is THAT?"

We looked down, and sure enough, a freshwater mussel, embedded into the river substrate, was displaying its lure designed to attract fish. The lure looks just like a live fish, and even has two "eyes" and waving "fins". To me, freshwater mussels are one of the most interesting and amazing creatures on the planet, simply because they appear to be such simple beings, yet their lures mimic fish so incredibly it just blows my mind. Last year, we only captured still images, but today, I captured video. Sit back, relax, and prepare to be amazed if you haven't seen this before.

Mystery Creature #2

Ok, so I revealed the mystery creature as the plain pocketbook, a freshwater mussel that lives in the Olentangy River.

But here is another mussel, from the same river and from the same exact area where we found the first individual. Its shell had green rays, and its mantle was bright orange. This species doesn't have the fish decoy effect that the plain pocketbook has, but I'm sure this mantle is just as attractive to fish. This individual kept pumping its mantle open and closed in rapid succession, about once a second. I've searched for more mussels with their mantles waving, and I think their time, at least for the season, is through. Megan and I found this individual on the last day of September.

Johnson Woods State Nature Preserve

Today I visited Johnson Woods State Nature Preserve in Wayne County. Here grows one of the largest concentrations of the largest trees in all of Ohio. I don't have a ton of time this evening, but I did wanted to share some photos of this nature preserve. The one thing that struck me today was all of the different types of fungi growing throughout the preserve. I don't know fungi very well, but they are really interesting, and I need to start learning about these interesting organisms.

Here is one of the large white oaks at Johnson Woods. My yellow notebook is about four inches wide, and this tree continues to go straight up for what seemed like forever. I measured the diameter of this tree at 117 centimeters, which is almost four feet. What a tree.



Next up, I saw a few outbreaks of the beech aphid. These aphids like to eat the leaves of beech trees, and form large colonies that look like masses of white wool clinging to the the branches. When disturbed the individual aphids wave back and forth and they look like one super organism. A weird sight indeed.



Another interesting creature was this salt and pepper colored slug. I have no idea what species it is, but I saw two of them on a fallen log. They were each about two inches long.



And now its time for the mushrooms and fungus. Since Johnson Woods is an old growth forest, there is plenty of what scientists call "coarse woody debris" on the floor of the forest, and much of it is inhabited by fungi. I don't know what these species are, but feel free to chime in if you recognize something familiar.













Tom

Mystery Creature

What is this animal? Megan found this, I photographed it, and I know what it is, at least what phylum it belongs to, but boy was this neat to see in the water of the Olentangy River. I had seen videos of this creature, and I've seen this creature in person, but never quite looking like this. So here's the thing. I want to see what other people think it is. Feel free to chime in and speculate. Just click on the comment picture below the last photo.

Tom