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Q: Last winter, I saw a doe with four babies. How often does this happen?

Although it’s possible four fawns were birthed by one doe, it is somewhat unlikely. The University of Illinois did a multi-year research project and found that 0.3 percent of does, or 1 in 324, were pregnant with quadruplets. Female whitetails have been known to adopt and rear orphaned fawns while they are still dependent on milk. However, does typically only adopt other fawns if they lose their own offspring. 

The most likely explanation is that one or more of the fawns was born to a different doe and was separated from her once they were nutritionally independent — for example, she was harvested during deer season or was hit by a car — and they joined the doe you saw and her fawns. Doe groups typically share some degree of genetic relatedness, but they also can be mixed with different maternal lineages.

Q. I came across this little guy in the dark one autumn morning on my way to my tree stand. Is it a centipede of some sort?

This is a glowworm, which is a beetle larva in the Phengogidae family and, in this case, likely the Phengodes genus. The females and larvae in this family have bioluminescent organs. The genus name is derived from the Greek words phéngos, which means “light, shining, splendor,” and ódes, which means “like or resembling.” This beetle family is distinctly different from fireflies (family Lampyridae), which also may be called “glowworms” in their larval stage. For more information, visit short.mdc.mo.gov/4KX.

Q. I took this picture on my farm in January. Could you tell me what it is?

This is a fruticose type of lichen. Lichens are plantlike, but they are not plants. A lichen is a composite organism formed by certain fungus species that join with certain algae species. The relationship between the fungus and the algae is quite intimate and integrated, and the lichen that is formed does not much resemble either of the components.

Fruticose, or shrubby, lichens are three-dimensional. They typically grow in multi-branching tufts, resembling tiny leafless shrubs. The branches are round or sometimes flattened in cross-section. The reproductive structures can be club-shaped with colored tips, like fruits, or like tiny goblets or horns.

The most obvious representatives of the shrubby lichens are the beard lichens and tree lichens, which grow in branching, shrubby, gray-green tufts on tree branches. But a big group of shrubby lichens are the cladiform species, common on soil or rotting logs — reindeer moss, British soldiers, brown cap, and the various species of pixie cups, whose spore-bearing structures resemble goblets. 

Roughly speaking, Missouri has about 55 species of fruticose lichens. For more information, visit short.mdc.mo.gov/4K2.