@damontighe.bsky.social
Community Scientist with a focus on fungi and a huge iNaturalist addict. Formerly a researcher on the human genome project, single cell sequencing, but now spend most work hours supporting educators in bringing more hands-on biotech into their classrooms
Bay Area - its prime Slime Mold season with the combination of warming weather and water saturated logs just starting to dry out. Find yourself a good deep ravine and look closely at those well rotten logs and you’ll find magic in the margins #slimemolds #sfBay
The next few days in the SF Bay are going to be incredibly good for finding Entomophthoromycota (insect attacking fungi). Check mushroom gills, logs, and outer canopy leaves for infected arthropods. Here are a few from this week. #fungi #Entomophthoromycota #flydeathfungus
Found a friend in the forest yesterday. Springtails are some of the most notorious mushroom eaters around and damn most of them are super cute #mushrooms #springtails #macrophotography #fungi
The Yellow Eyed Ensatina (Ensatina eschscholtzii xanthoptica) of the San Francisco Bay Area has a very moody blue fluorescence under 365 nm light. Saw a lot of the out this morning #salamander #Ensatina #UVF
Recent rain in Oakland was enough to conjure up the Hygrocybes. All bright and shinny + one goth (H. singerii) #goth #mushrooms #mycology #fungusfriends
Early fall rains mixed with warm weather
Still reeling from seeing Desert Candles in February in the Carrizo Plain. Below is a plot of observations (CCH, CalFlora, iNat) in SLO county since 1935 and yes 2026 is very much an outlier. Flowering ~1.5 months early and even more so since many were in seed last weekend. #carrizoplain #flowers
I am actually blown away that they go after detecting materials in the trub. A pile of gloop is the last thing I think about attempting spectrophotometery on. Any idea what one these runs $?
The Desert Candles are already up (1.5 months early :/) along with A LOT of other #flowers in the #Carrizo Plain. This Brassicaceae has it all - showy intricate flowers, a Dr Seuss level swollen hollow stipe, the ability to grow in nutrient poor soils and the capacity to get super tall. #california
Had a collection of mine get used as a Holotype for the new species Gliophorus calunus this week and oddly what I’m most excited about is my pet field tool ”project” of making UV Fluorescence part of things that help different fungi in the field got coded into this paper. #mycology #Gliophorus
While cleaning up mushrooms for dinner I found this fungus gnat, maybe the genus Leia infected with Entomophthora in one of the yellowfeet. One more reason mushrooms are best cooked real real well #fungi #flydeath #mendocino #mycology #macrophotography
Coccomyces dentatus seen on the Fungus focused walk I led at Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens on Sunday . The black lines are fight zones between individual fungi and why this species is often called Map Fungus #fungi #Mendocino
after teaching a workshop at WSU Vancouver today I got to enjoy the scale of things the humans I can perceive : from springtails to volcanoes.
#springtaisl #mthood #PNW
Half to the slug and the other half is with me. A ate a shave of it but want to scope it
Found a truffle tonight in a Portland City Park thanks to a slug who was eating it and happened to to glow under UV light.
Tempted to turn them into a truffling slug, not quite as fast as a dog, but a lot lower energy to keep
Best find from a Bioblitz today in Marin County: Sarcoleotia cf. globosa. In the family Geoglossaceae.
UVF 365 nm at left with a very interesting red fluorescenc. Rarely seen in California and I’m only aware of 1 sequenced collection, not matching European ones
#Sarcoleotia #mycology #mushroom
I’m not an expert in Lanternflies but this seems like a mess up on common names at Oakland Zoo’s glowfari display - just hoping this doesn’t encourage anyone to attempt getting spotted lanternflies as pets.
I still have my qualms with Oakland Zoo, but one is not the art work installation that goes in for their Glowfari event. For the most part amazing artistic renditions of organisms that usually don’t get the lime light. #oakland #glowfari #lightsculptures
Got some excellent side eye tonight while trying to collect Entomophthoraceae in the Oakland hills. Cold yet stern: Ptenothrix beta
I love globular #springtails
If you want to see fungi infecting insects in the SF Bay, I think this week is going to be about as good as it gets. I’ve seen lots of infected insects the past few days including these Gibellula that attack spiders
#gibellula #spiders #fungi #oakland
I quit my job at #iNaturalist, the product I co-founded. If you'd like me to keep working on natural history software, support me on Patreon: patreon.com/kueda. FWIW, I'm building an iNat backup tool and an app for viewing geologic maps.
Or, if you think you'd like to hire me, get in touch!
I really enjoy UVF because it’s such a good reminder of how different the world can be with just a little shift in our perspective #fluorescence #UVF #snails #oaklandhills
The recent Bay Nature Magazine with my article on UV Fluorescence is out. It’s full of tips on what habitats and organisms to look at. Big thanks to Editor Kathleen Ok-Soo Richards for helping fine tune the piece since I’m definitely rusty at writing article #Fluorescence #SFBay #UVF
Find these and more in the #inaturalist project for UV Fluorescent Organisms
www.inaturalist.org/projects/uv-...
The shorter wavelength by far causes more fluorescence.
395 and 365 nm. Most things that fluoresce under 395 will also fluoresce under 365 but there are a few exceptions and it tends to be plant leaves - maybe due to protective compounds ?
A few UV fluorescent organisms from an accidental night hike yesterday in the Oakland Hills. I’ll have an article out about UV Fluorescence in the SF Bay Area in the next issue of Bay Nature Magazine. #UVF #fluorescence
Arrhenia "sp-CAO4"
An undescribed blue-green Arrhenia that can be seen in chaparral habitats in California. Known so far from 2 sequenced collections by Stu and myself.It spans from LA to the Bay and likely further.
Saw on a late starting New Year's Day hike in the Oakland Hills. #mushrooms
Exploring the diversity literally outside my door. Found this wonderful springtail, maybe Entomobrya atrocincta, in the leaves decaying next to my front door.
#springtails #urbanBiodiversity
Backyard springtails have been very good as of late
#springtails #thingsthatgojumpinthenight