Don, thanks for that posting. I've seen photos of Nutrias. They look like
wombats but ugly. Nothing like an introduced species to screw things up.
I think we should all note that when sending each other plants, great
care should be taken to insure that one doesn't accidentally enclose
Nutrias, Cane Toads, or feral pigs in the bag too. :)
I just got an emailing from Michael Chamberland. MC has been working on
getting email access for a while from his old old coal burning technology
PC. His address is drosera@delphi.com but he can't handle much mail
yet on his service. Michael is probably going to be joining the group
at some point, and since he did his master's work on cacti and works
at the Phoenix Botanical Gardens will be good for those of you who like
xerophytes.
Tom:
Regarding your cheesie Wardian case (since I'm fairly sure from your
description that is what you have), it sounds quite charismatic!
My only suggestion for you is to lose the pebbles. I used to use pebbles
but they are heavy (well, not individually, but...), and after several
months can develop a certain...air...to them if algae and other varmints
near the bottom of the phylogenetic scale start growing. Go to the hardware
store and look for something called egg-crating. It is a kind of grid made
out of plastic and can be cut to the desired size. I put this stuff at the
bottom of my terraria. It is light and can be cleaned very easily. I
got the idea from a CPN article by Cliff Dodd, who was growing _Heliamphora_
on the stuff.
BAMR