Slug eating a mushroom

I’m still on a mushroom kick after reading Entangled Life. One of the bonuses of working at home now is being able to go out mushroom hunting at lunchtime to take photos! I usually go down into the bush but these ones were right next to the house growing out of some hay mulch. I took a few photos when they first sprouted. I’d planned to take some more the next day as they grew but when I returned there was a slug with it’s mouth wrapped around the entire cap! An hour later the slug was gone, all that was left of the mushroom was a bare stalk.

This is when the mushroom after it first sprouted. It’s tiny, probably only a cm or two tall

After a day of growing they were about 5cm tall, the cap had expanded and turned a deeper red colour with regularly spaced white nodules around the rim. I returned an hour later to take a photo and found this!

Slug chowing down on a tasty looking mushroom

Slug eating a mushroom. It was taking it slow, not much apparent movement but an hour later the slug and entire mushroom cap were gone

This is all that was left.

A shriveled stalk is all that was left. Another of the same type of mushroom is in the foreground, unfortunately out of focus

I took the slug photos with my SLR and 70-300 zoom lens. They are not as clear as I’d hoped, I’ve got some extension tubes on order to hopefully step up my macro photography game. The other photos are taken with my phone.

• Backyard
• Mushroom
• Slug