Reader Mark Joseph, inspired by my post on leucistic Australian ducks, went in an example and some other photos. Mark’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Your post this morning coincidentally arrived as did this photo from a person in our birdwatching group; it’s a leucistic house finch (Haemorhous mexicanus):
And, to give you a small set instead of a singleton, here are a couple of my feeble efforts, all taken with an iPhone in suburban southwestern Michigan. Hopefully, you can use them. I know even less about flowers and insects than I do about birds, so all identifications are courtesy of Gemini.
A zinnia (This specific variety is likely a Zinnia elegans, such as the ‘Canary Bird’ or ‘Benary’s Giant Yellow’ cultivar”) with a bumblebee (“specifically consistent with the Common Eastern Bumblebee, Bombus impatiens). I have enjoyed taking photos of flowers and insects together:
Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea stoebe, sometimes classified as Centaurea maculosa). Unfortunately, it is invasive:
A crabapple tree and a closeup. This closeup helps narrow it down to a Sargent Crabapple (Malus sargentii) or a Siberian Crabapple (Malus baccata).
Sargent Crabapple (Malus sargentii) or a Siberian Crabapple (Malus baccata):
This is a Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) or a Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus).These two species look nearly identical from a distance and are the two most common bats found roosting on residential brick walls across North America.
Brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys).When we first moved here and I decided to take some pictures, I got all excited because I was able to get a really good picture. Then I found out it was a stink bug, and invasive to boot. So, not a new species of peacock. But, it’s one of the things evolution has produced. Order Hemiptera, the “true bugs.”
A Shaggy Inkcap (Coprinus comatus), commonly known as a Shaggy Mane or Lawyer’s Wig. The next day the cap is just black goo, and the day after, nothing is left but the stem:
The bat and the Stink Bug: separated at birth?
Very nice photos!
Shaggy ink caps were common when I was a boy in southern England. They are delicious when young, before any trace of blackening. They produce an allergic reaction with alcohol; not relevant when I was 6-10 years old.
Not the shaggy ones. You’re thinking of the smooth ones, Coprinopsis atramentaria, that contain Coprine, the hemiaminal of cyclopropanone hydrate and glutamine. The amide linkage hydrolyses in vivo to yield the actual, extremely potent inhibitor of aldehyde dehydrogenase, blocking conversion of alcohol-derived acetaldehyde.
Acetaldehyde, which normally circulates at extremely low levels during alcohol metabolism, is an exceptionally noxious stuff. Its consequent accumulation when aldehyde dehydrogenase is blocked is what’s responsible for the symptoms.
I love the shaggy ones! They used to reliably occur in fall at one particular place when I was in Sweden. I’ve found them in the US, too, but sadly only rarely.
I’ve only once found a fresh patch of shaggy ink caps big enough to provide a feed (in New Zealand). I fried them up immediately and yes, they were delicious.
I was referring to Coprinus comatus.
Shaggy ink caps are also in my part of Australia. Delicious. Other also edible fungi that I collect are Saffron Milk Caps (Lactarius deliciosus), Slippery Jacks (Suillus luteus), and what I call the common field mushroom (Agaricus campestris).
Unfortunately, every few years a forager mistakes a Death Cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides) for something else and pays with their life. Just recently an Australian woman was convicted of three counts of murder after she poisoned family members with a meal of beef wellingtons, deliberately laced with Death Caps. I guess she held off on the fugu sauce, thinking it was overkill.
Comment by Greg Mayer
The bat’s forearm looks to be just a bit less than the height of the brick. A standard brick in the US is 57 mm, so, if the two choices are Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus) vs. Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus), then it’s a Big Brown, whose forearm runs 42-52 mm, while the Little Brown runs 36-41 mm. (Measurements fide Reid, F.A. 2006. A Field Guide to Mammals of North America North of Mexico. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.)
GCM