Whenever it rains a lot (as during Hurricane Irene's brush-by,
when this image was captured [Oct 99]), mushrooms pop up in
abundance on Sapelo, including in the transition zone from
saltmarsh to terrestrial forest, where marsh-edge squareback crabs
(Armases cinereum) roam. The bright golden-yellow wood-
decay mushrooms in this image are favorite foods of marsh-edge
squarebacks; one crab is eating a hole in one of the mushrooms in
this image, and other crab-eaten patches can be seen in other
mushrooms in this group, along with a fecal pellet or two. If
a horde of crabs were to find this batch of mushrooms, they could devour
a substantial part of the batch, before the mushrooms began to
autolyze.