Longhorned Beetle (Stenosphenus notatus)

Longhorned Beetle
(Stenosphenus notatus)

Identification: Combination of red pronotum with black spot and shiny black elytra with white hairs is distinctive.

Range: Eastern North America, west to Rocky Mountains.

Habitat and Food: Larvae feed in dead limbs of various hickories. Found in decidious forest with these host species.

Remarks: Most wood boring beetles overwinter as larvae. When warmer spring weather arrives, they develop into adult beetles and emerge in the late spring or early summer. S. notatus is different. Adult beetles develop in the fall, but overwinter inside the wood, finally emerging in the very early spring. (Source:  Ted MacRae @ Beetles in the Bush)  This particular beetle had actually not yet emerged. I found it inside a piece of hickory I split for firewood.

Join the Macro Monday fun at Lisa's Chaos. 

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Longhorned Beetle (Stenosphenus notatus)

Worm-like Mass

Does anyone know what this is?
(This is not a test because I do not know the answer.)

When I first saw this growth on a dead hickory tree, I thought it was a mass of worms, but it isn't. Each on of the "worms" is mostly air, so light that it will float in the air on even the most gentle of breezes. I suspect they are fungal spores of some type.

Worm-like Mass

Fall Color Mostly On The Ground

We had some gusty south wind early in the week. Now most of the colorful fall leaves are on the ground, although a hickory at the top of the first hill on the way out from our place was still showing some bright yellow.

Fall Color Mostly On The Ground

Fungus

Fungi growing out of a dead hickory tree in the yard.

Fungus