round ball of brown dirt-like substance, ~ 6 cm in diameter, found in a cow pasture with lots of dung nearby
Very cool to see this lone bee-mimic mingling with the exact same sized Black-tailed Bumblebees.
Another one seen nearby last month: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/69387430
This lizard was living its best life by ending the lives of many others. In retrospect, it would have been useful to know my camera can shoot high speed video.
5-mm gall or needle mine (?) at tip of needle cluster of a two-needled pine tree, maybe Pinus monophylla. Also posted to BG here:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/1943677
I collected this structure and hope something emerges...
The host plant is here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/70234190
Note: likely a persistent bud scale per comments from others below.
This animal was feeding on its favorite prey, the bryozoan Membranipora membranacea.
pricklebush, Hecastocleis shockleyi, White Mountains, elevation 1850 m (6075 ft). This odd composite has single-flowered heads in secondary clusters surrounded by holly-like bracts.
Uploaded from my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127605180@N04/
The real C. porphyroideus. Spores including apiculus, length µ=14.6 um, σ=0.68, width µ=8.5 um, σ=0.61, Q µ=1.72, σ=0.16, n=10. The other beech associated species has smooth spores ...
http://naturewatch.org.nz/observations/1551302
And the similar tea-tree associated C. coneae with some gold colours ...
http://naturewatch.org.nz/observations/1868078
Not associated with sphagnum bogs and in drier areas. L. alpina sensu NZ and not same as northern hemisphere species and not the same as L. chromacea which is also present.