Thomididae; Thomisinae; Runcinia insecta C. L. Koch, 1875. I was slightly confused when trying to ID this spider. This was before I joined Project Noah, but I used to look at P.N. spottings to help with ID's. I saw a similar spider to mine on https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/11... which called the spider Runcinia albostriata, which was right. But then I saw a French website http://www.dipode-vie.net/Arachnides/Tho... which had wonderful pictures shown as R. insecta. The explanation offered was "Cette espèce montre une fine ligne blanche sur le céphalothorax et l'abdomen qui lui a donné le nom de albostriata qu'elle a longtemps porté avant de reprendre le nom de sa première description." I don't remember much of my schoolboy French, but I translated it roughly as "This species displays a fine white line on the cephalothorax and abdomen which gave it the name albostriata which it held for a long time before reverting to the name in its original description" - obviously referring to Runcinia insecta C. L. Koch, 1875. Problem solved.

The caps of this lovely mushroom are rounded and tend to remain broadly domed rather than completely flat as the fruiting bodies mature. The caps can grow 2 to 8 cm in diameter are semi-transparent and white. The gills show through the thin cap flesh, giving the margin a striate appearance. A mucous slime covers the cap during wet weather. The gills of the Porcelain fungus are translucent white at first, sometimes developing an ochre tint as the fruiting body ages, adnate, broad and very distant. The stems are 3 to 7 mm in diameter, up to 8 cm long, and often curved so as to bring the cap to the horizontal in situations where large tufts of Porcelain fungi are attached to a small area of the host. The stems are slender, with a substantial stem ring. Above the ring the stem is white, below the ring it is slightly striate and greyish.

To: Mark Ridgway
Thanks for your comment Mark and thanks also for all the work you put into helping everyone to enjoy Project Noah. John B.

Black beetle with long antennae.

Yes it's hard to take the news here from a biodiversity point of view. And then so many are still talking about getting their lives back to pre-covid 'normal'. They have learned nothing.
Australia has some biological commonality with your area for example the lumpy spider I recognised immediately as a 'Poltys sp.' as we have a good variety of the genus here. It was an easy head start in the search. Glad you are enjoying PN.. keep the excellent posts coming as we have nothing to find here in a very wet winter.

The caps of this lovely mushroom are rounded and tend to remain broadly domed rather than completely flat as the fruiting bodies mature. The caps can grow 2 to 8 cm in diameter are semi-transparent and white. The gills show through the thin cap flesh, giving the margin a striate appearance. A mucous slime covers the cap during wet weather. The gills of the Porcelain fungus are translucent white at first, sometimes developing an ochre tint as the fruiting body ages, adnate, broad and very distant. The stems are 3 to 7 mm in diameter, up to 8 cm long, and often curved so as to bring the cap to the horizontal in situations where large tufts of Porcelain fungi are attached to a small area of the host. The stems are slender, with a substantial stem ring. Above the ring the stem is white, below the ring it is slightly striate and greyish.