These are often the result of iron, and can indicate the presence of iron-oxidizing bacteria.
Mine is this oneā¦ It is probably form a plant, but maybe also a mushroom ?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/132386214
@DianaStuder may have the link to one of the great unknowns of all time. We argued for the longest time about what kingdom the thing was in.
The Madagascan silk angels from Len de Beer.
And he has since found more species!
Could you provide a link?
My only unknown: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/246217078
Yes sorry - had just found it again for this thread.
That was one of finest examples of iNat taxon specialists graciously refuting
ā¦ not ā¦ because ā¦
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/106687320
New species being described.
That first one was the most beautiful!
But there are now many more.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?q=Madagascar%20silk%20angel%20moth&search_on=tags
I looked through these observations just now. What amazing creatures! :D
I especially like the slightly spiky one. Silk angel is such a beautiful name too. I hope their scientific name (if it is a monophyletic group) will include this
And now I have your undivided attention - what about this curiously radially symmetrical āsomething on a leafā from my - What on earth even is that?! - trawl across GSB (Such a relief to get back to familiar faces on my Cape Peninsula!)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/246092789
PS could it be as simple as fallen flowers from something nearby? That could explain the radial symmetry.
These arenāt totally āunknownā, but a student and I found a fair number of weird probably-arthropod related things on trees we were sampling this summer. Many of the ones in here are galls, which are less mysterious, but I couldnāt come up with an easy URL to exclude those because we otherwise donāt have many āEvidence of Presenceā annotations. Anyway, here they are: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?lrank=order&project_id=arthropod-constructs-colonizers-census-project&without_taxon_id=47157
That could be the basis for a horror movie on how aliens come to reproduce and invade planet Earth! It looks almost like a placental sac of some sortā¦
I donāt label observations āunknownā, and Iām new to the site, but hereās my strangest:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247722694
I posted two observations with this picture; the other is clearly a plant, but I donāt know what this strange stuff below the plant is.
Iron films! @jarnbrak is pretty knowledgable on these
I feel very vulnerable posting here because I feel like my Unknown might be easily recognizable to those with training, so please be kind, but this weird looking jellybean-shaped thing was on a Passiflora foetida vine. The patterning was mirrored. I brought out a green folder I had to try to get better contrast but none of the photos generated any suggestions that made sense.
I have not seen anything like it before.
On the other hand, here was an Unknown mystery that was unraveled but the conversation may not make perfect sense now because at least one of the people involved deleted their account and I think actually two.
An insect predator, on the even littler white ones? Ladybird and whitefly?
It does look arthropod-like. Could you tell if it had beetle-like elytra or not?
No, it looked to my eyes totally smooth, which made it hard to know what to photograph. Iāve gotten pretty good at spotting teeny legs and antenna and such but I didnāt see any of that. I almost wondered if it was some sort of plant growth/tumor? It was soā¦ odd.
Perhaps this is the ārear-viewā of a hoverfly pupa (idk which side is actually the front on these)?
This one has a similar pattern even.
Oh, you might be right! I see lots of hoverflies in my garden.
The strange stuff below the plant turned out to be just dead branches, not a squirrel (or any other) nest, so I deleted it. The remaining observation is https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247722690, which is a bacterial infection of pine branches called a witchās broom.