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Saturday, November 17, 2012

A Puzzle

An overcast sky
Dr. K, Becca and I came across these curious "dirt lug nuts" you see in the photos.  There were four or five of them, and we speculated that they were made by some type of insect.  But what kind?  I actually thought at first that they were dirt-encrusted lug nuts, and I accidentally broke one while trying to scrape the dirt off.  The holes were uniformly the same size, so I don't feel completely convinced they're formed by insects.  I've seen termite tunnels, and these things are disintinctly different.  Any thoughts?
One-spot profile

What made this hole?

Dirt lug nut

Two-spot profile

3 comments:

Dr. K said...

Becca is her usual curious self.

Scott said...

My guess, Packrat, is that they were made by a wasp or a spider. They look like entrances to tunnels that the critters were trying to keep open by applying saliva to cement the sand grains together. If they were completely "free" from the underlying soil, I wonder if the responsible critter opened the hole, paralyzed an insect victim, laid its eggs in the victim to feed its developing larvae, buried the victim, and then closed up the hole, leaving only the collars on the surface. That's my best guess.

packrat said...

Scott:

That sounds like a pretty good guess. I'm awarding you the grand prize, a set of six dirt lug nuts for a classic Flinstones-style used car.

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