Sprout

For the first time ever, I will have snowdrops blooming in my yard this year:

 They should have bloomed for the first time last year, but they didn't come up at all. I had been meaning to plant them for years and years, because snowdrops are the first flowers that will bloom in the spring, even before crocuses, and so they arrive just when you are absolutely desperate to see something alive in your yard, and absolutely longing for spring. But this year, because it's been so warm lately, it feels like spring is already here, so I wasn't pining for these to come up. Still, I was pretty happy to see this little shoot poking out of the ground.

The real reason I posted that picture of the snowdrop shoot is because even though I did a bug walk today, I have only one picture of an arthropod today, and it's not an insect, it's an arachnid, and I wanted to be able to provide a buffer for the arachnophobes, so they wouldn't click on the blog and end up with a spider right in their faces. So... Arachnid Appreciation:
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This tiny spider was on the window when I looked out this morning. I had to go downstairs to get my camera, and really hoped it would still be there when I got back. Not only was it still in the exact same spot by the time I got upstairs again with the camera, it was still there hours later. This picture might be a bit deceptive; this was a rather small spider.

A Buggy Day

I am out of the daily blogging habit, and keep forgetting that I need to blog on these days when I am going out and finding bugs.

Today it was 69.somethingºF outside. In February. It was beautiful, but so wrong...

But I saw a bee today. In February. I didn't get a picture, because that was the moment I discovered that my camera battery was dead, but you can just trust me, I saw a bee.

So, what else did I see on this spring day in February? More variety than any other recent day - Hemiptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera... some other opteras that I don't know... Most of the bugs were not feeling cooperative, and it was really windy (a hot wind, not a cool breeze), so I don't have great pictures, and didn't get pictures of everything I saw, but it was a buggy day in the backyard!

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Tiny beetle basking in the sun. I don't even think I can call today's sunshine apricity, because it sure didn't feel like winter sunshine. Anyway, this beetle obviously was drawn out of its winter hideaway by it.

Another Coleopteran:

 

 I think this is called a twice-stabbed lady beetle. There is another red spot on the other side, so I am sure you can figure out the name.

I saw one other beetle - a winter firefly, but I didn't get a picture of it, and anyway, you're probably sick of seeing those.

On to Hemiptera:

I never have figured out what this bug is called, but here it is, on the male flower buds of the hazelnut bush.

Other Hemiptera, aka True Bugs:

 Candy striped leaf hoppers. I have been disappointed the last few days not to find these on the mountain laurel, because I have seen them other not-freezing days this winter. Well, today I went off the paths in the yard and happened to be looking at this tree that still has last years leaves, albeit brown and dried out, and it was covered in candy striped leaf hoppers. Funny thing is, there are a couple other trees of the same species in other parts of the backyard, and I didn't see any CSLHs on those.

 We went out this evening, and got home around 11:00, at which time it was still in the high 50s, and there were quite a few bugs on the front porch waiting for me by the light. Most of them were winter crane flies, but there were a couple of moths. This is the only one that let me take its picture.

And, Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Not a spider, but a harvestman. I am curious about these short-legged harvestmen. I guess they can't really be called daddy-long-legs. I don't know if they are just young ones whose legs haven't grown yet, or if they are another species. That seems most likely, since their bodies are about the same size as the ones with the long legs.

It's Still Boot Weather

Another beautiful day in the backyard. I wore my boots when I went out, but I could almost have done my entire walk without stepping in snow if I wanted to make the effort and watch where I was going. But I'd rather keep an eye out for bugs, so I wore my boots and was indifferent to whether I was tromping through the last remnants of the blizzard or through mud.

 

A picture of two seasons, side by side.

I didn't find much in the way of insect life, which was surprising and disappointing. I even only found one winter firefly, but there was something interesting about it:

 Usually when I see them they are just sitting on a tree trunk, and they have their heads tucked under their pronotums (pronota? I don't know the plural of that, but if you want to know what it is, it's that part of the beetle that covers its thorax–the middle of the three body segments of an insect–and on this particular species it's the part with the pink stripes). But this one was walking around, and I guess for that reason needed to see where it was going, so its head was visible.

Other than that, the only things I saw were two spiders, and I only got a usable picture of one. So... Arachnid Appreciation:
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Awake

Every day when I go outside there is less and less snow on the ground, but it is taking a surprisingly long time for it to disappear. Yes, there was over a foot of it to begin with, but it's been about 2 weeks since the blizzard, and the temperature has been pretty far above freezing almost every day since. I shouldn't complain, because it's lovely, but... it's February. It's supposed to be colder than this.

It was warm enough that there was a chipmunk out and about today:

 

 Chipmunks don't hibernate, but they do sleep most of the winter, and only come out when the weather's mild, according to what I have read.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I didn't look this up, because I put my bug books away for the winter, and don't feel like going to the other room to get them, but I think this might be some kind of stone fly.

 Today was mostly a day for winter fireflies, however. I was out very early this morning, and saw one when the temperature was still only in the 30s. And when I went out in the afternoon, with the temperature in the mid 40s, they were everywhere:

 This one was behind a piece of bark that was curling away from the tree. Above it in this picture is the remains of a gypsy moth chrysalis, and below it to the right, the beige blob is one of two gypsy moth eggs cases in the same crevice. I am praying for a wet spring this year to kill off the coming onslaught of gypsy moth caterpillars.

The last couple of days as I have wandered around the backyard I have seen–and occasionally walked through–quite a a few spider threads. And today I finally spotted a spider, so let's have a bit of Arachnid Appreciation!
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 A very small jumping spider

Looking at Clouds From Another Side

I read a book once about clouds. It was a field guide to the different kinds of clouds, giving their names, and explaining what caused them to be the particular shape and form, and what they portended. It was an interesting book, and though I didn't actually learn the names by heart, or even really learn to distinguish them all, I enjoyed reading it and trying to identify the many kinds of clouds I saw on the road trip I was traveling on as I read it. The book had something to do with the Cloud Appreciation Society, and there was a part, I think in the introduction, in which the author expressed his annoyance at people who say they hate cloudy days. To him, you see, clouds are fascinating, and I kind of understood him. I don't like overcast days, but even though I have expressed annoyance at clouds many times, I realized when reading his defense of them that I was generalizing. Because I do like clouds, when they are not covering the entire sky with a uniform sheet of darkening gray. And I think most people probably do feel the same way - they have at least some appreciation for the big, fluffy, white clouds, and look for shapes in them, and enjoy them, and then say, "Ugh, a cloudy day," sometimes, not meaning that they hate all clouds.

I was thinking about all of this today on my bug walk, on a mostly cloudless, bright, not-as-warm-as-yesterday-or-the-day-before, windy afternoon. But I was thinking about it in terms of bugs. I have seen a meme on the internet a couple of times where people express joy that it is freezing cold winter because that means all the bugs have died, bwa ha ha ha ha! When I see that meme I get annoyed, for two reasons. One, because it's inaccurate - the bugs haven't all died. Go out on a winter day when the temperature is in the 40s or higher and you will see them. Even ants will be out in the winter when it's warm enough - they aren't just dying at the end of summer when the picnics are all over. And the reason insects will be so abundant in the spring is because so many of them are just spending the winter out of sight, somewhere sheltered. And think about it - there are winter fireflies, and winter crane flies. They have those names because they are around in the winter - not on the coldest of days, but on some pretty chilly ones. The other reason I get annoyed by the meme is because the more I have come to appreciate insects, the more annoying I find it that so many, many people hate them just because. Sure, many of them can be awful - the ones that bite, and spread disease, but many more are extremely helpful, and in fact vital to our lives. And the vast majority of them will never interact with any human at all, so no human has any reason to hate them. But I guess I used to be one of those people, too. I used to think bugs are icky. So I shouldn't be too hard on them. But maybe they could at least remember this - butterflies are insects, too. And maybe we shouldn't hate so easily.

I didn't find as many insects as I expected today, even with the temperature not making it to 50ºF. I was out in the warmest, still sunny part of the afternoon. But hey, it's February, and I did see insects, so I can't complain!

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Whatever little hideaway this wasp has been spending the winter in must have warmed up in the last couple of days.

 

 I expected to find winter fireflies today. What surprised me is that this is the only one I found.

 I had another look at yesterday's mystery object, which I am pretty sure is a cocoon...

I wanted to see it again because after looking at the pictures of it that I took yesterday I thought maybe I should look at the other side of it, and sure enough, there's a big hole in it. There's nothing in there anymore - whether it emerged on its own or was extracted and eaten I do not know.

Blogger Fail

I am a perfect disgrace of a backyard bug blogger. Both days this weekend were in the 50s – today was almost 60ºF – and I didn't do a proper bug walk. I did go out today just before dusk (it's amazing how quickly a day can go from bright to dark), but by then, without the apricity (vocab reminder: apricity is the warmth of the winter sun), I suspect many bugs that might have been out earlier had gone back into their cozy spaces. I did see bugs - a few winter crane flies, some other kind of fly, a gnat – and yesterday while we were in the car I found a spider dangling from my hand (I moved it to the dashboard), but I only managed to get one bug picture today in the backyard:

 Winter firefly. Just the kind of thing one expects to find on a sunny February day when the temperature is less than one degree away from 60ºF. This was taken in the last minutes before it became too dark to see.

 

 It was pretty dark by the time I found this, but that's not the reason I don't know what it is. I have two guesses - either a cocoon, or an egg. It was hanging from a cedar tree.

I do occasionally find insects in the house, too – there was a moth I found on the skylight in the bathroom on Christmas day that has been there ever since. Occasionally I will find a stinkbug. Yesterday I found a western conifer seed bug on the storm door (we were on our way out the door, so instead of taking its picture like a dutiful backyard bug blogger, I just nudged it out the door when we went out). And this evening a little visitor dropped by while I was sitting at my computer:

 I was amused by the fact that this ladybeetle was crawling around on my bee notebook. It (the ladybeetle, not the notebook) has a bit of a fungal problem.

Tomorrow isn't supposed to be quite as warm, but I will try to get outside to find something interesting. This whole week is supposed to be rather balmy by February standards, but it is also supposed to be raining, so I may or may not get a chance to go looking for bugs.

Winter Insects

We had a blizzard last week to start a series of several days with varying amounts of snowfall. Today was a milder day, though, and when I was outside finally shoveling the last of the snow off the driveway, I thought it might be a good day to find snow fleas (which, as a reminder, are not fleas, but a species of springtail). A gnat wandered past my face as I was taking a break, which was a definite sign that bugs could be found today. So, when I was done I put away my shovel and went to get my camera instead.

The first thing I discovered was that the snow in the backyard is deeper than the snow on the driveway. It was a bit of a slog. And I didn't find any snowfleas. Or any winter fireflies, which I was also looking for. But I did find this:

 A swarm of winter crane flies. I have seen them in the winter before (because they are winter crane flies, obviously), but never with snow on the ground. I thought that they hung out in the leaf litter when the temperature was below freezing, but now I don't think so, because the leaf litter here is about a foot under the snow.

Can't see them? How's this:

 

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 One settled on the snow.

Snow Bugs

We had a little bit of snow yesterday, and after a lengthy deliberation, I decided that the warmer air of today was not going to be enough to finish off the snow on the driveway (it would have been nice to have more sun), so I went out to shovel the rest of the snow that we didn't bother to shovel last night. While I was out there the sun came out for a few minutes, and I happened to glance up at the house and saw something.

I should mention now that I am about to break with the usual protocol of this blog that involves putting the spiders at the end. Because a spider is what this post is all about. So, I'll put in a gap here, as I usually do, so that you can back out now without seeing the spider if you are that afraid of them. Or you can hurriedly scroll past it to the other things that will come after. I respect your arachnophobia if you have it, but what I saw on the side of the house was a spider:
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 A rather small jumping spider. It was not interested in having its picture taken, so I didn't get any closer than this.

 A fly landed nearby, too. This fly was about 3 times the size of the spider. It flew away pretty quickly, but I wonder if the spider would have gone after it otherwise.

Since there was a spider and a fly about, I thought I go look for other things, even though the temperature was only about 41ºF. I figured I might at least find some snow fleas (which are not really fleas, but a species of springtail).

I didn't find any snow fleas, but...

 

 I did find a few springtails on the snow in various places in the backyard. Just solitary ones, not big groups like I have seen before.

 Such amazing little creatures...