Along the trail at Fern Cliff Nature Preserve I found a fallen log covered with rhizomorphs, presumably of Armillaria fungus. This is not unusual to find in the woods, but this log had an appearance I had never seen before. Alongside the rhizomorphs covering the dead log, the wood had long channels seemingly carved into the wood that approximated the look of the rhizomorphs. Above are photographs of this phenomenon. The channels appeared to be largely empty but some had some substance resembling rhizomorph. Would the wood have been eaten away by a rhizomorph and then the fungus itself disappeared? That's what it looked like. Or were they made by some kind of wood-boring insect? I haven't ever seen anything like this in the literature.
Above, two closeups of the rhizomorph channels.
Photos from Fern Cliff Nature Preserve, Putnam County, November 11, 2017.
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