What in the Woods Is That?

Play our biweekly guessing game!

Whatever draws us into the forest—be it birdwatching or logging, hiking or hunting—all of us are unified by the sense of wonder we feel in the outdoors. The forests, fields, and streams of our region are full of mystery, and if you stop and look closely, you’ll see all sorts of oddities.

Below find a picture of one such woodlands curio. Guess what it is and you’ll be eligible to win a Northern Woodlands woodpecker magnet designed by artist Liz Wahid. A prize winner will be drawn at random from all the correct entries. The correct answer, and the winner’s name, will appear when the next column is posted and in our newsletter (sign up here!).

Death for a Fly

This snipe fly was found in Thetford, Vermont, dead and smooshed against a sugar maple leaf. What killed the fly?

Answer

A fungus, most likely furia ithacensis.

This fly was just one of an infected swarm, each tiny cadaver attached to its own sugar maple leaf by a fine webbing of fungal filaments. Although furia infection of snipe flies is not well understood, the process appears to begin with the piercing of the fly’s body by conidia (spores).

Read more about this grisly process or see it in action below.

This week’s contest winner was Stephen Kubber of Penfield, NY