House Guest

Bugs try to avoid the inevitability of winter sometimes by finding a way into the lovely coziness of the indoors. I am not sure how they get in here, but they do. Late last night I saw one of these little intruders walking across the living room floor, and now it is Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Click beetle. It looks dead, but it was moving. Beetles often pretend to be dead as a means of self-defense. I am not sure how that keeps other things from eating you, but beetles exist, so it must. I hated to do it, but I put it outside. I don't think it would survive the winter in the house, because I don't think it would find food.

The big surprise when I went outside was finding a beetle out there, too.

I found the outdoor beetle on the stile, and that is also where I found:

 an ant...

 ... and some springtails.

When I crossed the stile I realized that the inch and a half of rain we got last night had filled up my puddle pond again, and there were springtails on the surface of the water:

 A raft of springtails. I am not sure if they did this on purpose, or if the breeze pushed them together. Note one is riding on the back of another.

 It was only when I looked at the pictures on the computer that I spotted a baby (nymph?) one–on the left side of the photo. Springtails are tiny. I am not sure I would have been able to see that with my naked eyes, and I just didn't notice it through the camera. It was an awkward photography situation.

And there was more than one species of springtail. The Oblong one (also a young one) is a snowflea, which is, obviously not a flea really, but a species of springtail that will sometimes be seen (in huge masses) on snow.

Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.