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crab brittlegill with parasiting beetles

russula xerampelina

Description:

Russula xerampelina has a characteristic odour of boiled crustacean. The cap is 6–12 cm (2.4–5 in) wide, domed, flat, or with a slightly depressed centre, and sticky. The colour is variable, most commonly purple to wine-red, or greenish, and darker towards the centre of the cap. There are fine grooves up to a centimetre long running perpendicular to the margin. The gills have a mild to rather bitter taste, narrowly spaced, and turn creamy-yellow on ageing specimens. The spore print is creamy-yellow to ochre. The oval spores measure 8.8–9.9 by 6.7–7.8 µm and are covered with 1 µm spines, The stipe 4–8 cm (1.6–3.2 in) long, 1.5–3 cm (0.6–1.2 in) wide, is cylindrical, white or sometimes with a reddish blush, turning ochre or brownish with age.

Habitat:

Russula xerampelina, also commonly known as the crab brittlegill or the shrimp mushroom, is a basidiomycete mushroom of the brittlegill genus Russula. Two subspecies are recognised. The fruiting bodies appear in coniferous woodlands in autumn in northern Europe and North America. Their caps are coloured various shades of wine-red, purple to green. Mild tasting and edible, it is one of the most highly regarded brittlegills for the table. It is also notable for smelling of shellfish or crab when fresh

Notes:

this one get eaten by little bugs (maybe aphids). the bugs stripping the gills from the mushroom. i had never seen this scenario before, but good for me for a nice shot. the last picture is a russula (few steps further) how the mushroom suppose to look like.

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1 Comment

DoinaRussu
DoinaRussu 12 years ago

Excellent spotting! Big bravo!

AlexKonig
Spotted by
AlexKonig

Brunssum, Limburg, Netherlands

Spotted on Oct 10, 2011
Submitted on Oct 16, 2011

Spotted for Mission

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