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Sunday, July 20, 2008

Bugs, Boleta, Barbecue, and a Tacky Green Russula

Sky found a lady bug on the deck yesterday. He's here from Juneau while his new baby sister gets strong enough to go home. Pam, at Grassroots Science had written about lady bugs, something she heard on NPR:

Calling all kids! Cornell University wants you to find and photograph ladybugs. John Losey, a professor of entomology at Cornell University, hopes children will help document ladybug populations around the
country. Some native species are dwindling, while exotics are on the rise. To participate in the project, go to the Lost Ladybug Project Web site or send an e-mail to ladybug @ cornell . edu




So I decided to take a picture. The bug wouldn't hold still, but this one on M's hand gives a sense of the color, spots, and size.



Then he found this dragon fly, who did hold still. It was only afterward that we saw it was eating some other bug with little wings. It looks to small to be a fly. Not sure.




Sky was a regular explorer of our backyard and soon came up with this boleta. It was perfect. The recent rains had stimulated a lot of mushrooms, but such a beautiful boleta.








Sky wanted to keep it and we wanted to barbecue it - since the coals were already hot. He wasn't too happy when I sliced it up and put it on the grill. It was more than delicious.





But he found some more mushrooms. Looking at my mushroom field guide, I think this is a tacky green russula. There were five or six. Says "good" under edible.








Here are the gills.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousSunday, July 20, 2008 at 4:16:00 PM AKDT

    Thank you and Sky for the lady bug photo. That's exactly the type I saw, maybe even the same one. I hope Sky reports it.

    The dragonfly is a bluet (damselfly), I bet. I had a lovely one posted but now can't find the reference to it

    The following is a book for your backyard collection. You can find it at TitleWave

    "Dragonflies of Alaska," by John Hudson and Robert H. Armstrong.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSunday, July 20, 2008 at 7:33:00 PM AKDT

    Alaska bluets not dragons or flowers but damsels

    ReplyDelete

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