Frogs, frost, and fungi were flavor of the month this July. It was nice to be out in the parks after a few wet days and listen to the frogs calling. Some of the frogs you may have heard locally are the eastern sign-bearing froglet (Crinia parinsignifera), common eastern froglet (Crinia signifera), and Sloane’s froglet (Crinia sloanei) among others. Did you know you can listen to the calls of Australian frogs using the FrogID app? You can also record a frog’s call, pop in some location information, and then an expert will verify which species you have. FrogID is run by the Australian Museum and is a citizen science project that contributes towards frog conservation, so check it out!
Those up early enough would have enjoyed the sparkling of the ice crystals on those frosty mornings we’ve been having. Have you ever thought about how native species cope with such extremes of climate? You’re probably familiar with the hibernation of bears across the northern hemisphere, but what do our local Aussie animals do when it gets a bit chilly? Well quite a few of our mammals employ torpor (lowering of body temperature and metabolic rate) or even hibernation (prolonged torpor) to cope with environmental stressors. Species such as numbats, dunnarts, antechinuses, quolls, honey-possums, and sugar gliders are capable of daily torpor while echidnas, pygmy-possums, feathertailed gliders, and some bats use prolonged torpor or hibernation as a strategy to conserve energy. It’s interesting to note that these bouts of torpor or hibernation are not only used during colder weather, but can be a response to reduced food availability after events such as bushfires.
Those few wet days were also ideal for doing some fungi hunting, but you’ve got to be quick and lucky as the fungi can be there one day and gone the next! However, we did see some different species popping up throughout the parks. Perhaps because we don’t see fungal fruiting bodies for most of the year or the perception that fungi are all badies being either poisonous or causing illnesses, which indeed is the case for some species, people don’t fully appreciate how important fungi are. A group of fungi called mycorrhizal fungi are essential for the health and survival of our forests. These fungi attach some of their thread-like hyphae (the bulk of the fungus that is usually underground) to the rootlets of plants and then spread out through the soil. The hyphae can collect water from pockets in the soil that roots can’t reach, and absorb nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous that has been broken down by bacteria, and then transport these back to the plant in exchange for glucose (sugar) produced by the plant via photosynthesis. This is a beneficial symbiotic relationship that’s been around for over 400 million years and helps both fungi and plants to survive. Here are some of the weird and wonderful fungi seen over the past month.
A favourite trail during July was the Hunchy Fire Trail, accessed off the McFarlanes Fire Trail. It’s lovely on top of the ridge on a clear day as you get a different view over towards Albury.
And then there was this little fellow – a centipede. Do you know your centipedes from your millipedes? Both are myriapods, not insects (six legs) or arachnids (eight legs). They both live on land, have a segmented body, and a pair of antennae but centipedes have only one pair of legs per segment while millipedes have two pairs. Many centipedes are venomous while millipedes are not. This centipede was spotted at Castle Creek Conservation Reserve.
