Unidentified Pond Object for ID

[Malcolm Banks]

Saw this object lying in about 10cm water in my pond today. At first glance I thought it was an upturned dead slug but on closer inspection it appeared to be a translucent jelly-like object, roughly hemispherical, ca 3 cm across and with no apparent internal structure or features.

I am guessing it is something expelled from something, but haven't seen or heard of anything like this before. Probably something really prosaic, but novel to me Hope it's not extraterrestrial
Any thoughts?
M

[Malcolm Banks]

PS - forgot to say that I couldn't get a good shot of it in situ because of surface reflection, so removed it with my tea strainer-on-a-stick (handy gadget) and then replaced it after the photo shoot.
M

[Dan Salter]

Its almost like some of the jelly of spawn without the eggs?

[Adam Cheeseman]

Leaving aside the fact it was underwater my first thought was a type of jelly fungus. Assuming it's not that I would guess it is an (invertebrate's?) egg mass of some sort.

Cheers,

Adam

[Dutchess]

It may be worth doing a search as I seem to recall we had this jelly like substance brought up (no pun) on WAB about this time last year. I cannot recall what the general consensus of opinion was though. If I come across the thread, I'll post the link here.

D.

[loripo]

Was it this one?
http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/fo...ost595640.html

It has a couple of links to Wiki which might help too..All I could recall was that it had a Welsh name

[hatless]

Malcolm Smith, 1951, Collins New Naturalist Series says of 'Star-Slime' that, according to Baylis 1926, is is formed from the gelatinous lining of oviducts of frogs and toads that have been eaten by birds. When the birds leave the oviducts, they absorb moisture and swell "to such an extent that the oviducts are split open and with advancing decomposition form a mass of jelly. This persists for some time, while the tissue from which it originated may become unrecognisable."

I'm not entirely convinced, or at least, not by the mechanism suggested. The jelly masses seem perfectly clean, and are not associated with decaying tissue or dead frogs. They also seem too solid. If you watch a frog produce her eggs, they do come out in a small, rubbery mass of jelly, but very quickly they absorb huge amounts of water and become soft and perfectly clear, not like the white and fairly solid masses called star-slime.

It's possible, I suppose, that if a frog is killed before it's ready to breed, its oviducts might contain an incomplete type of jelly, a precursor to the eventual spawn, and that this might have the properties of star-slime. I also wonder if immature frogs might sometimes produce a gelatinous substance in the year before they are able to produce spawn, and this could be excreted.

[Malcolm Banks]

Thanks for the responses. I am pretty sure it is not slime fungus, or at least is not the same as the one in the link posted by loripo. I am pretty sure it is not an egg mass of any kind since it has no visible external/internal features. The association with frogs and spawning is the most compelling to me pro tem, although not at all convinced by the rather convoluted frog oviduct theory.
I like the suggestion that it may be incompletely formed spawn and the association of this with immature frogs is attractive if immatures are known to join the fun in the pond?
Awaits verification, hopefully from the thread Dutchess mentions, if I get time later today will try and do a search but the sun is (sort of) shining now so have to get out.
M

[IanF]

I suggest that some microscope work is required here - without this sort of examination I think any id will at best be just a guess. Have you got access to a microscope - local universities or EA office may be willing to oblige?

IanF

[Malcolm Banks]

An interesting thought Ian that, despite my ready access to microscopes, I had not considered - this would certainly confirm whether or not it is some form of slime mould, but would show practically no microscopic features if, as I (we, Dan and hatless ) suspect, it is some form of frog spawn-associated jelly mass.
M