It’s called a Fungus Beetle, although I didn’t know that when I saw what looked like more than one black beetle moving around in the bits and pieces of the mushroom I was taking a picture of.
I was delighted when I got down low enough on the ground to take my picture and saw the little “doorway” in the mushroom just under the cap.
At first I was too busy trying to focus my camera to take a picture. It was when I took a moment to just look, that I saw the activity going on next to the mushroom.
Little black beetles were crawling in the bits and pieces of mushroom that I assumed were excavated from the stem of the mushroom with the “doorway.”
The beetles scattered in the moments it took me to get my iPhone from my pocket so I didn’t get the video I hoped for.
But once I was back home I learned all about the fungus beetle, how they not only eat the mushrooms, but lay their eggs in them and live in them too.
How absolutely magical to discover this, and with a door no less. Love it.
I felt so too Barb. :)