המועדפים של esummerbell

On Carya glabra

https://gallformers.org/gall/1668
Gagne: "wall firm, brittle, uniformly thin except slightly thicker at apex; larval chamber of same shape as gall, without conspicuous extension into basal pedicel, glabrous, green to purple, with longitudinal ridges. In outward appearance the gall of this species is generally similar to those of other spherical, hairy galls, especially those made by C. purpurea and C. holotricha, but when cut longitudinally, the gall's uniformly thin wall and its conical connection to the leaf will serve to distinguish it from otherwise superficially similar galls."

My first one that I have seen, but I heard one calling from a Home Depot many years ago. I didn’t realize they were this big!

I typically stop at garden centers at night to listen for hitchhikers, as I was hoping to get a Green Treefrog in Prince Edward Co. Over near the rows of mulch in the parking lot, this large frog hopped out, that I assumed was a Bullfrog. After some deliberation, I decided to photograph it, and boy am I glad I did. In the poor lighting, I could tell it was not a Bull and was in a hurry to get away. So, I grabbed it, and when I did it tried to jump, and I made a bad grab, catching the frog between my pinky and ring fingers. I struggled with the animal, as it was able to pull free by grabbing my arm and muscling its way out. Then, when I grabbed it, it stuck down to the asphalt, and I could not pull the front feet up without hurting the frog. After a minute of struggling, I slid my finger under its feet and it latched on and calmed down. I had a pretty good idea what it was by this point, and when I got to the light of my truck, I realized that it was indeed a giant Cuban Treefrog. I believe the nose rub came from our struggle, but it is minor and will heal. After a brief photo shoot, I poured some water in a CritterKeeper that I keep handy for such emergencies, and placed the frog in there. I decided to keep the frog, and I will use it as an education animal. I named it Fidel. It’s not uncommon for this species to hitchhike on garden supplies, and end up way northeast of their invasive range in Florida. I wouldn’t think these would ever establish, but imagine what this beast could eat over the course of a whole summer... I have seen pictures of these eating Squirrel Treefrogs, but those must have been small Cubans, because this one could probably swallow a Squirrel Treefrog quickly and easily with no problem. This could swallow an adult male Gray Treefrog easily.

Then, the frog struck back. I had a gnat fly up my nose, and I nonchalantly wiped my nose with the hand I handled the frog. Big mistake. My nose started burning, and running nonstop. After an hour, it stopped burning, but my nose and upper lip went completely numb. I am just glad I didn’t get the toxins in my eyes, but I want everyone to know, these things are toxic, not life threatening, but no joke. At least at home I keep latex gloves for such species, and these ought to solve my problems for any future interactions.

I’m wondering if the outgrowths on this hickory nut could be considered galls.

A botanist colleague thinks the nut may be from Carya pallida, Sand Hickory, based on the shape and golden scales.

The nut was collected a month ago by a friend.

Numbers of American Bumblebees were feeding from these structures - developing acorns, I assume - on a red oak. The bees concentrated on the centers where a tiny part of the acorn tip is visible. The images show acorns that are slightly misshapen, a bit out of round, with cavities in/adjacent to the emergence point of the developing acorn. I assume a larva of the gall-forming wasp, possibly, is growing inside the acorn cup/acorn. I'm not sure if the rupture near the acorn tip is the work of the wasp larva or that of one or more insects attracted to the larval byproducts (an ant is visible on one of these acorns, and a beetle was also present, in addition to the several American Bumblebees).

Hypophyllous on Modiola caroliniana. Not easily confusable due to the host; microscopy matches literature anyway. Both teliospores and basidiospores highly variable in size and shape.

Measurements
Teliospores
37–80 × 10–21 μm
Teliospores in literature
45–87.5 × 8.0–17.0 µm (Albu et al. 2019)
31–81(–95) × 10.5–20 (–25) µm (Aime & Abbasi 2018)
Basidiospores
9–12.5(–17.8) × 6–9(–10.5) μm

Images
All slides in LPCB, scale bar 100 μm for image 1, 50 μm for image 3, 10 μm otherwise.
1: Cross section of telium, teliospores visible on lower surface
2: Epiphyllous habit
3: Various teliospores
4: Sterigmata, two with attached basidiospores
5: Spent sterigmata
6: Promycelia/metabasidia in various stages of growth from teliospores
7: Basidiospores
8: Notched teliospore apex
9: Hypophyllous spermogonium
10: Early or broken teliospore germ tube
11: Additional habit