For my second rock of the day, I decided to try the small powerline right-of-way a couple hundred yards from my house. The powerline is almost a hundred years old, and the right-of-way has turned into a scrub barrens habitat dominated by lowbush blueberries and huckleberries, scrub oak, mountain laurel, sweetfern, and bracken. Two springs ago my brother collected a rare species of blister beetle there, and the increasingly scarce yellow-breasted chat has nested there in the past, so I was curious to see what a casual look under a rock would turn up.
What I found was nothing rare, but beautiful nonetheless. The Narceus millipedes, as I mentioned here a while back, are superabundant composters of forest litter throughout the northeast, where they apparently serve as a significant reservoir of calcium and phosphorus in otherwise acid, well-drained mountaintop soils. Out here on the powerline, where the leaf litter is thin to nonexistent, it makes sense that they would shelter under rocks.
Whereas with my first rock, the low-light conditions under the early-morning forest canopy made photography difficult, out on the powerline the strong sunlight created too much contrast. You’ll have to take my word for it that the sandy soil under the millipede’s rock was a maze of millipede-sized galleries. You can see the millipede at left of center. It curled up immediately upon the removal of its roof and didn’t budge.
A close-up of the shaded portion of the trough-shaped hollow does show some detail of these halls of the mountain millipede. After I replaced the rock and headed back down to the house, I tried to picture it there, uncurling, traveling the labyrinth of its home, its feet rising and falling in silent waves.
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OTHER ROCK-FLIPPERS
(last updated Sept 5, 8:30 a.m. EDT – newer additions at bottom)
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The above post is Part 2 of a four-part series on IRFD festivities in Plummer’s Hollow, Pennsylvania (USA). See Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4.
If you don’t see your own blog post listed, please email me: bontasaurus (at) yahoo (dot) com. And feel free to reproduce this list on your own blog, or anywhere else.
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I love the runnelled channels you’ve caught, and the ripple of millipede wandering in that last sentence.
The thin caliche out here made it hard to find anything as tunneled as your find under a rock, but it was a fun flip nonetheless!
Great photos, and I love the tunnels too. They look lacy.
Great find!
What a gorgeous millipede!
BTW, I sent you an e-mail with the link to my post; I hope it went through. (My ISP has been having mail problems the last week or so.)
My post is at Shelob in her lair.
[...] UPDATE: Check Via Negativa for rockflippin’ entries from around the world. The submissions are still coming in, so check back from time to time. [...]
[...] The Flickr set of photos is here. And be sure to visit Via Negativa for the full set of links and his lovely photo of Narceus millipedes. [...]
[...] Update: Dave Bonta, convener of this event, has compiled a list of participants with their blogposts. Check ‘em out! Posted by sheepdays Filed in outside [...]
[...] So, you’ll have to satisfy your rock-flipping curiosity by checking out the Flickr photo pool devoted to the occasion or by clicking the links at the bottom of this post (not this one as originally reported). And by way of showing that there isn’t a complete lack of nature out here in the ‘burbs, here’s a blurry glimpse of the red-tailed hawk I spotted while walking Reggie near Waban Square in Newton yesterday. Between this bird and the one I saw in West Newton in July, I’m thinking we should establish an International Birds in Your (Almost) Backyard Day. [...]
I had to give Rock Flipping Day a bye because it was 108 degrees outside, which would have made it cruel to any subterranean denizens who were down there, in any case, for the coolness. As it was, I went out to see a friend who was in hospital and ended up in the ER with a severe migraine.
[...] Take a run over to Via Negativa to see the entries for the International Rock Flipping Day. I am sorry I missed the opportunity to flip a rock. I guess I’ll have to find me a rock to put in the yard for next years IRFD… [...]
Thanks for the comments. Susannah, I did get your link, as you see.
Joel, that really sucks. It sounds as if this date, which we picked in such haste, may not be ideal for your neck of the woods.
[...] To read other bloggers’ posts about IRFD, please refer to the links list at the end of yesterday’s post. [...]
my post is
here
I think G-d might be punishing the local Republicans for voting for Bush. (I live in Orange County, California.)
[...] The last in a series. See also Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. And don’t forget the check out the other participants’ blog posts, linked to at the bottom of Part 2. [...]
[...] The past month at Via Negativa began with the International Rock-Flipping Day reports, which I managed to get four posts out of. I was surprised and gratified by the response to this impromptu event, which was sparked by a comment at a VN post in late August. I linked to all the other IRFD participants I could find at the end of my second post. I was also pleased to see some dissenting voices — bloggers who preferred to leave under-rock denizens undisturbed. [...]
I just found your blog, and International Rock-flipping Day. I love the concept, and I really hope there will be a second annual event so I can participate too.
Hi, Diana. I’m glad you like the concept. Yes, I certainly plan to keep it going, and maybe start publicity a few months early next year – get nature centers and school teachers involved, if possible.