Photograph of cryptic spotted lanternfly egg masses

The river birches at the Morris Arboretum in Chestnut Hill, PA, were loaded hundreds or perhaps thousands of spotted lanternfly egg masses, all of them amazingly camouflaged. Can you find them on the trunk below? Click on the photograph to view a larger version.

Cryptic spotted lanternfly egg masses on river birch

In addition to trees, spotted lanternflies can oviposit on a variety of artificial surfaces such as shipping containers, cars, trains, and garden tools. Their fondness for hard, smooth surfaces means that humans unwittingly transport them across state lines.

Here are the locations of the egg masses.

Cryptic spotted lanternfly egg masses on river birch

More photographs of spotted lanternflies are on my SmugMug account. Please also see my post, “Spotted lanternfly control tips“, for details on how to kill eggs, nymphs, and adults.

Cribraria aurantiaca

Just a short update about that mysterious green slime mold I posted about in 2017. It’s Cribraria aurantiaca. Huge thanks to Sarah Lloyd (author of Where the Slime Mould Creeps) for the identification on iNaturalist.

I’ve revisited the log perhaps 10 times over the past three years but I’ve failed to find the sporangia, which are yellow when fresh. I’ll keep trying. To me, the plasmodium looks just like oobleck, the green slime featured in the Dr Seuss book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

Cribraria aurantiaca growing under the bark of a decaying pine tree

More photographs on my SmugMug account.

If you like slime molds and have an Instagram account, follow Sarah Lloyd. She also has a website.