Far too many things going on today for a long one, so this is brief. Today’s storytime post is all there, if you look closely. The faintly brownish trail of some arthropod larva that twists through the middle of the leaf, and by that I mean, between the top and bottom surfaces – and terminates at the larva itself. It has the appearance of being on top of the leaf because the upper membrane is so thin, but it’s inside – I checked at the time. If I’d backlit the leaf, the damage within would have been more obvious.
The first point that I’ll draw attention to is the apparent random nature of the damage, not appearing to follow any particular pattern and only limited by the main rib down the center of the leaf – probably not the most efficient method of eating, but give the species a few thousand years. If the plant doesn’t develop its own repellent traits in that time.
The second came to me as I typed, but I have a faint suspicion that the darker lines along the path are actually the waste, where the larva was defecating as it made its way along – you notice how they’re all oriented towards the bottom no matter which way the larva was progressing. You always know you can count on me to bring you these little details.
Okay, one more stupid thing, which is a screenshot of the text file I use as backup when I’m writing posts (having been burned before on system crashes, plus what’s a storytime post without a link to another post?) But it’s awfully suspicious the way so many “the”s lined up at the beginning of the lines, doncha think?
[No, after adding that I didn’t get any more – not even the one in quotes.]