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Photo#343754
Eggs

Eggs
Elkton, Douglas County, Oregon, USA
October 15, 2009
Yesterday, my wife found these eggs on a willow stump in our yard. There were deposits of them around various openings and crevaces on the stump. Some clusters were as small as 5mm across; most were about 10mm across and this one is about 25mm from top to bottom. This afternoon I went back to the stump and all egg deposits were gone. In years past, I know for certain the stump was home to carpenter ants and Microdon Syrphid flies. Today I also noticed a hatching of what I believe to be termites emerging from the stump.

I can't believe an insect would simply lay their eggs for ants or termites to eat - plus, termites eat only wood, right? I'm more inclined to think some insect left the eggs as parasites. Any idea what kind of eggs these are and what purpose they serve to whomever snatched them?

Moved

Moved
Moved from ID Request. I agree that this seems to be a slime mold. The individual units look a bit too irregular in size and shape to be insect eggs. A more zoomed-in, higher resolution image would help confirm this. I've moved the image to this section because I think it's useful to have an example of how slime molds can resemble eggs.

 
Zoomed-in
I added a 100% crop.

I am curious though; any idea what could have made all patches of them disappear completely, without a trace, in 24 hours?

 
more on slime molds
When I asked a mycologist friend about this posting, she replied "I think it could very well be a slime mold, although I wouldn't expect it to disappear so soon." She also provided (from an Internet search) a neat video on the web showing the production of sporangia from a white plasmodium. Additionally, I found this brief explanation about reproduction of a white slime mold.

 
Source for video
Here is the website that is the source of the video.

 
The beginning of the GIF animation
looks just like what I saw, except there were no stems attached to any of the roundish parts. I have, however, at other times, seen the black stalks (easily visible in the last GIF), but never associated with anything that might have grown on the ends/tops. The next day, when the mold disappeared, there was no trace that anything had ever been there. I'm wondering if the termites that emerged the following day might have removed the mold for their own purposes? I've also seen carpenter ants and Microdon emerge from the stump. Perhaps they might have a use for the mold?

 
Second video
I just posted the source website for the video when your message arrived. I then noticed that that website has a second video right next to the first that shows a migrating plasmodium...maybe yours wasn't finished migrating when you saw it?

 
Looks like
a definite match. Interesting that it seems to grow as it moves. The only difference I see is that the patches I found left behind no residue of any sort. Hopefully, the next time I find some, I can get images of the stuff in transit.

Thanks,   :-P)

 
Slime molds
You can learn more about this from the Queen of slime molds. She photographed some day after day.

I don't think these are insect eggs
I'd probably be looking at slime molds instead.

Dan Borzynski

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