If we just push our way through these giant canes
we should find the…splash!...stream. I’ve found the water; my right foot has at
any rate. I’ve also found a rather interesting character wandering over this
rock here. An eight legged arachnid but not a spider. She is one of the hard
backed ticks (like books, they come in hard back and soft back) and I think
that she’s a Brown Dog Tick. Although they prefer dogs as hosts (and we have
plenty of hunting dogs in this area) they will take blood from any mammal
including us. As she can host bacteria that would result in us catching Mediterranean
spotted fever she is best avoided – like the plague as it were. I think we’ll
press on.
This looks like a nice spot to sit and rest for
a while with a little waterfall gurgling beside us. I don’t see any ticks about
and fortunately they are not particularly numerous so let’s probe about in the
leaf litter and see who’s at home. Ah, a tiny, bright red, harmless bug. Very
small, very colourful and very vulnerable; which is probably why it’s hiding in
the leaf litter. Bugs have to grow up
just like we do and this one is just a toddler so to speak. Later on it will
moult into new clothing, changing styles (much as our children do when growing
up) and finally reaching the full adult livery of our old friend the Soldier
Bug. Then, of course, it’s off to find a mate and start the cycle again as we
saw last week.
Well, we’d better move on but it looks as though
we’ll have to crawl through the undergrowth once again. These magnificent
plants with the mottled stems and white patched leaves are Dragon Arums which
will throw up a huge purple spathe next month. Very impressive and I’m sure
we’ll see some when the time comes. Meanwhile, I’ve just dislodged a piece of
bark from a rotting tree stump and a couple of woodlice have rolled out. Some
woodlice can roll up into a tight ball like this and, like Ernie Wise’s wig,
you can’t see the join. These are commonly known as pill bugs in the family Armadillidiidae.
The odd thing about these two are those lumpy bits called tubercles. They’re
very pronounced and require a bit more investigation as I don’t think that
they’re common woodlice. You may think that a woodlouse is a woodlouse is a
woodlouse but there are over 200 species in Greece alone and they’re a
fascinating group of animals to study.
The river bank is a great place to find rotting
logs and tree stumps and gently peeling away the outer bark can often reveal a
kaleidoscope of life going on. Let’s have a look under this one. A worm, but not
an earthworm. See the way that it’s anchored its backside to the wood and is
swishing away at the front? That is characteristic of a Nematode. They don’t
have the ability to crawl like earthworms. Did you know that they can eat up to
five thousand bacteria a minute? That is, if they don’t get eaten themselves
first. There seems to be a fungus growing up not far from its head and there
are such things as nematophagous fungi that prey specifically on nematodes;
catching them in glue traps or lassoing them. I don’t think that this is one of
those though. I think that it is in far more danger from that little scorpion
there. I have an irresistible urge to call “He’s behind you!” in true pantomime
tradition. By the way, the nematode is definitely an ‘it’ and not a he or she.
Like slugs and snails, nematodes are hermaphrodite with both male and female
sexual organs.
I think that we can stand up now and if we push our
way through these canes we should get back to the track – eventually. It’s like
trying to break out of prison isn’t it? Here we are, scratched, torn but happy,
back on terra firma and there’s an inconspicuous little flower down by our
feet. A little flower with a big history. It has been used to mummify Egyptian
royalty, sail Roman ships, provide a
good night’s sleep for European nobles and oil the bats of the England Cricket
team. It is Linum bienne or pale
flax, the wild ancestor of the cultivated flax that has been used to make linen
for millennia and the source of linseed oil. It also gave us the words line,
lining, lingerie and linoleum; and to think I almost trod on it.
The Extra Bit
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LINKS:
Naturalists
(the facebook page that accompanies this blog)
See detailed pictures at
http://www.inaturalist.org/login (search - people-stevedaniels-observations)
I didn't know that about nematodes. I've seen them swishing about, and thought they were just panicking because I'd disturbed them.
ReplyDelete"There are nematodes which thrash about frantically...flatworms which glide around rather gracefully; and oligochaetes like this one which are rather squirmy wormies related to the common earthworm." from Aquatic worms :- http://cretenature.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/worlds-within-worlds.html
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