MUSHROOMS IN THE ANCIENT CITY

Two weeks ago, I published here a post titled IN THE WOODS AROUND NESACTIUM. The ancient city of Nesactium was only mentioned in the title of that post. All you could see there were some fungi and insects found in the dense forest around it.

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This time I encountered a group of mushrooms right in the place where once stood a capital of the people called Histri, and then after the Roman conquest of this area, one of the many fortified towns of the empire.

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The mushrooms I found today are fairly big, pretty robust, and elegant at the same time.

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Some of these lovely mushrooms had formed a half-ring on the lawn of the archeological park.

You'll see only one species in this contribution to FungiFriday by Hive account@ewkaw - the Amanita strobiliformis.

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I mean, you'll see only one mushroom species. When it comes to insects, you'll see a bit more.

This fly, ad example, has landed on the top of the cap.

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It's a very common housefly (Musca domestica) a species from the Muscidae family. If you enlarge the photograph by clicking on it, you'll see that the fly's mouthparts are exposed and projected outwards. The insect is feeding on some liquid stuff on the cap's surface.

On the vegetation around the mushroom, I noticed a much smaller fly.

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The minuscule Scaptomyza pallida. A species from the Drosophilidae family.

While photographing a group of amanitas nicely mixed with daisies ...

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... I noticed an even smaller, mosquito-like fly. This is a fungus gnat. Can't tell you which one exactly. Quite a few species from six different families in the superfamily Sciaroidea are commonly known as fungus gnats.

Here you can see the same mushrooms from a different point of view, and in the following photograph ...

... you can take another look at the same thing. From above, this time.

In this photograph, besides seeing a friend that was there with me, you can also see a bit more of the archeological stuff. Scattered stones. Reconstructed walls. Stuff like that.

Scaptomyza pallida flies were very numerous on the lawn. This one was cleaning its legs. In this specific photograph, the forelegs. In the following triptych ...

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... you can see the Scaptomyza pallida cleaning its hindlegs.

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Here, the fly was cleaning its flying apparatus and the flash of my camera created some beautiful colors on the translucent surface of the elegant wing. With the following photograph ...

... the focus is on the mushrooms again.

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Amanita strobiliformis grows in a symbiotic relationship with various deciduous trees. Its Wikipedia page states that this species prefers scattered forests or, like in the case of Amanitas shown in this post, woodland borders. The remains of the ancient city are surrounded by woods.

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This meaty amanita is edible, but I never tried it. Some sources say that the outer skin of the cap has to be removed. A couple of sources state that the species has some compounds that make it hallucinogenic.

I think that fruiting bodies of the Amanita strobiliformis sometimes grow in large groups that form rings. I'm not sure about that because I didn't find that information in my Internet sources, but since I found a nicely shaped half-ring today, I'll say that this is certainly the case. Sometimes, at least.

Here you can see another insect that I found on the green plants in between the mushrooms.

It's not a fly, for a change.

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This is a flea beetle from the genus Longitarsus of the Chrysomelidae family.

With quite a few similar Longitarsus species present in the area, I can't tell you which one exactly is this. It could be the Longitarsus membranaceus. Or the Longitarsus exsoletus, maybe.

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I'm not completely sure, but I think that this was my first encounter with the Amanita strobiliformis. Maybe I saw it before without recognizing the species. Anyway, never before did I explore these mushrooms thoroughly like today.