I stumbled upon some star jelly today. I have seen it years ago and have been keeping an eye out for it. I know there are several theories about it but the frog one the one that gets my vote. Especially as today I found it beside a dead frog.
more here:
http://thisteacherslife.wordpress.com/20...llow-road/ fixed link
PS I think it is possible that I am repeating a topic, but I searched the forum for 'jelly' and found no relevant posts.
Your link takes us to the pic of the red fungus in your other post.
Never heard of "star jelly", what on earth is it?
Here are some photos of the star jelly I found today:
Here is the frog I found less than a metre away:
I found this in the new scientist archives:
NewScientist
The last word
* 24 July 2004
Lump life
I have a photo of a phenomenon that has me baffled. These gelatinous lumps turn up about this time each year, around the perimeter of the pools in my garden. Although they appear at around the time frogs are breeding, they do not seem to be spawn because they don't appear to contain any eggs. The photo shows lumps that have been subject to rain: when fresh they are more angular in shape. They remain in the grass for up to a week, and then disappear as quickly as they appeared.
As the answers below show, anyone encountering one of these lumps will have to decide if it is natural or man made - Ed.
These gelatinous lumps are sometimes known as "star spawn" and were reputed to be what was left of a shooting star when it fell to Earth. They are common near herons' nests, which provides a clue to their real nature.
Frog spawn does not swell to its full size until it is laid and is in an aqueous environment, otherwise imagine how big a female frog would be in spring. Herons are extremely partial to frogs, and mating frogs are very easy targets.
There are two possibilities for what happens next and, as a heron's mode of feeding tends to be grab-toss-swallow, I favour the first one. As the unfortunate frog is digested by the heron, its ovaries encounter an aqueous environment. They absorb water from the bird and begin to swell. Again, imagine how big a frog's worth of spawn is, and the result if it swelled in the heron's gizzard. So the bird must regurgitate it or risk ending up as big as Mr Creosote. The alternative is that the heron picks out the ovaries before swallowing the frog. They then swell where they lie.
Adrian Gray
Wolvercote, Oxford, UK
The lumps of jelly are from frogs, presumably squeezed out of the victim when gobbled by a fox. I find them in various places, some not very near water, and the earliest two finds last season were before Christmas. Most do not show signs of eggs or spawn, but some do. In the photograph below, black eggs are clearly visible.
I. C. N. Alcock
Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, UK
The questioner was right to suspect frogs. The jelly is the water-saturated gelatinous mucilage from their oviduct linings. These organs are rejected by the birds, commonly herons and crows, that feed on the amphibians. The swollen jelly often persists for a long time after the tissue residues have decayed. Here in Pembrokeshire it was called pwdre ser" (pronounced "poodra sair") meaning "star-rot", referring to the ancient belief that it fell from shooting stars (Nature, vol 118, p 552).
No eggs are present unless the frog was eaten whilst ovipositing. This is because the eggs only receive the jelly coating as they pass down the oviducts just before discharge.
John Etherington
Llanhowell, Pembrokeshire, UK
From issue 2457 of New Scientist magazine, 24 July 2004, page 89
Henry More, in 1656 ,wrote:
That the Starres eat...that those falling Starres, as some call them, which are found on the earth in the form of a trembling gelly, are their excrement.
John Dryden, in 1679, wrote:
When I had taken up what I supposed a fallen star I found I had been cozened with a jelly.