Toft Logs - Minifungi etc

Today was the first day for a while that the garden log pile was thawed enough to see what new minilife had errupted. The first 4 images are small fungal species, tentatively identified as Episphaeria fraxinicola, Henningsomyces candidus and Mollisia cinerea (Grey Disco). The Slimemould is a Hemitrichia species and the final image shows a Beetle larva on an Orange Jelly fungus.

Life on Toft Logs

Though more or less confined to home by the aftermath of a Christmas Bug, I did manage a walk to the old railway track in Toft to gather a log or two for slime moulds etc which I photographed back at base. I think the first three are all stages of Hemitrichia spp but was excited by the very small black shiny balls thinking a new species of mould but turns out they are a ?mite species. There was also one very active Ichneumon which I am sure is Ophion obscuratus,the Cream-striped Darwin Wasp which does not hibernate in the winter, instead, it disappears for a few months in the late spring and early summer. The female lays her eggs inside the caterpillars of different species of nocturnal moths. The green coloration of the oak log is a funal infection and I collected a piece of coal from the track to see if it had any moulds - negative so far (Oxford Cambridge line ran steam trains from 1860s to 1940s through Toft)

Miniature Life in a Log Pile

It has taken a couple of days to process these images taken in one of the log piles in my garden - focus-stacked images with 60mm lens plus 26mm extension rings and natural light. The possible IDs are Trichia varia for the first and Hemitrichia spp for second - I need to photograph older stages to be sure according to expert advice. I like the orange peel surface on the first. The next six are various slime moulds (I think) and then a couple of fungi species (Henningsomyces candidus and ?), , finishing with an incredible spider sac with mesh bag - not yet identified to species but so intricate and colourful.