Night Bugs

I didn't do a bug walk today for a number of reasons, but they can be more or less summed up as I am lazy and didn't want to. This time of year it's the same bugs all the time, and I didn't want to do it at the time available to me, so... I bailed. I figured it was too cold outside to find anything other than those few things that have been around lately. But I realized later that it was probably warmer outside than I thought. I went out this evening, and when I came home, I was surprised to see that a lot of bugs were swarming around the porch light. It was 38ºF at the time, but my guess is that it was pretty mild in the afternoon, and that's why the bugs were still out and active.

There were two kinds of insects on the porch:

 Midges

Winter crane flies

Insect Update

It's been a while since I've posted (or had anything to post), so here's what it's been like in the backyard this week (the highlights. Or low lights, depending on the day and your weather preference): Sunday, snow, rain, and ice. Monday, a high of 9ºF. Thursday, 4.25 inches of rain and temperatures in the mid 50s. Today (Friday), back down into the thirties; it froze overnight, based on the fact that there's ice in the backyard, but the high in the afternoon was in the upper 30s, above freezing, but not warm.

It's been quite a week.

Due to the cold early in the week, the ground froze again, so when we got that ton of rain (which would have been about 2 feet of snow if it was 25ºF colder), the "vernal pool" puddle filled up again, and it was quite extensive. Then the overnight freeze iced up the edges. I couldn't get close to the parts that were still water, so I couldn't tell if there were springtails on the surface, but I did find other springtails in the backyard today.

I found three species, in fact. Two were on a tiny, half-frozen puddle on a rock:

And the others were snowfleas that were congregating on the same rock they have been gathering on lately (though this is the first time I have seen them this week).

I also saw a winter firefly:

This is the first one I have seen in a couple of weeks.

And stoneflies, lots of stoneflies:

I have never seen so many stoneflies before in my backyard. I used to see them in the spring, but they are the bug I have seen the most in the last month or so (although, because the springtails are usually in big groups, I have technically seen a lot more of those).

One winter ant. It is a bit cold for them, but there are warmer micro-climates, particularly where there is sunshine on rocks, which is where I found this.

There were little things flying around today, too, but I never got close enough to see what they were. The temperature is forecast to slide down again for a while, so it may be some time before there's another post. I realize all of the bugs I posted today are the same ones I have been seeing all month, I just wanted to show what happened outside after such weather extremes in January. I can't help but wonder what bugs were out yesterday, but it was too rainy and windy to go out with my camera, even with an umbrella. It was raining sideways at times.

I saw a lot of spider threads around the backyard, and since there was some severely hard rain yesterday I assume they were new today. So, I was on the lookout for spiders. I only found one for Arachnid Appreciation:
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Forecasting Insects

We're supposed to have a lot of snow this weekend (unless it's rain instead), so I feel like I could make up some kind of folklore about what I found today:

 Snow fleas, which by now you know are not fleas, but a species of springtail. I don't know why these were out today, but I could say that seeing snow fleas is a harbinger of snow to come... But I won't, because that is just nonsense that I just made up. There was one rock on the front walk that had a bunch of snow fleas on it.

 

The reason I did a bug walk today, after having no success the rest of the week even on the days that it was warm enough to make me think it was worth going out, was because I kept seeing bugs through the windows, so I assumed that there was a lot of insect action outside today. I saw swarms of what I think were midges, and other small things flying past the window. But when I went out, and did my full bug walk, all I found was the snow fleas on the front walk.

 Well, and one spider for Arachnid Appreciation:
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Hardy

I went outside today to walk around my backyard just because I was going stir-crazy. It was below freezing, so I didn't bring my camera; I wasn't out there to do a bug walk. Sure, I was sort of looking for bugs, but just out of habit. I knew there wouldn't be any, because it was only 30ºF.

And yet, I found a bug.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Midge. Midges have the coolest antennae. And they are obviously much tougher than humans; this one was out and active today with the temperature below freezing, and then there were the humans, my husband and I, warm-blooded, bundled up (Well, to be honest, only my husband was bundled up, I was outside in a short-sleeved t-shirt), freezing and eventually retreating back inside where it's warm (after a very short time outside).

It's not like the backyard was teeming with insects, though. Other than the midge, all I saw was these little critters that hang out in the moss (still don't know what they are). But then, it was literally freezing out, so the surprising thing is that I saw any insects at all.

Meanwhile, inside the house... Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I found this tiny spider on the Christmas tree as we were taking off the ornaments.

Umbrella

I bought a new umbrella recently. The reason I bought it is because it has a loop at the end of the handle that I can stick my arm through, meaning I can hold onto the umbrella while leaving my hands free, solving a problem I have always had trying to take pictures of bugs in the rain. It takes two hands to take the pictures, leaving none to hold the umbrella. But now I can just loop the umbrella handle over my wrist and have both hands for camera work. I am not completely sure that this was a good idea–rainy days are my days off, after all. But there have been enough times when it was raining and I wanted to go out with my camera that I know it had to be a good idea. I don't think it will work very well when it's windy, but when it's calm, it should be okay. The problem right now, of course, is that there aren't a lot of bugs to be found, rainy or not. The days that I don't do a blog are sometimes too cold for bugs (yesterday the temperature never got above freezing), but sometimes on days that are within the bug parameters I just don't find any. Most days lately that have not had a post from me have been days when I found a few things, but they were the same things I see every day, and without at least one thing that is out of the ordinary I am not going to post. You don't need to see a picture of springtails every day.
Anyway, today was only the second time I tried out my new umbrella while taking pictures. The first time I tried was really windy, so that didn't work out. But today was calm. I just didn't see much worth taking a picture of, but the umbrella worked just as I had hoped. No awkward juggling of camera and umbrella, or trying to hold the umbrella between my shoulder and neck, giving myself a crick. And really, this is why I even went out today:

 When I went out to get the mail I noticed that the snowdrop sprout I saw the other day has a bud emerging. I planted snowdrops because they bloom very early in the spring, just when you can't take the barrenness of the winter any longer and desperately need to see something blooming. Now I am wondering exactly how early they will bloom?

Insect-wise? Well, it was like every recent day. I saw bugs flying around–a crane fly landed on the window. There was an ant in the mailbox when I went out to get the mail. I didn't do a complete bug walk, but I saw a LOT of springtails. Every rock on the walkway from the house to the street was covered with them (as was the front porch), and they were exceptionally bouncy. They are fun to watch.

Springtails on a small puddle

Lately I have seen a lot of spiderwebs on plants (and, as you can see from this picture, other things), but no spiders for a few days (except for a glimpse of one I got in the house yesterday). Not full orb webs, but individual strands, the kinds spiders use for getting from one place to another, rather than for catching prey.

Today I found a spider, though, for Arachnid Appreciation:
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Winter Optimism

Before I started writing this blog I don't think I ever really went outside in my backyard in winter unless we had snow. I would go out to dump things in the compost pile, but unless the backyard was recently transformed into a winter wonderland I didn't really bother to look around it much in the winter. I didn't think there was very much to see. Now I wonder what it was that I missed, because I know there had to be something interesting that I never knew about, since I didn't bother to look. I would look out the window, and just see a dead world, or rather, a sleeping world, although it looked dead to me. I didn't know how much was still alive out there (other than the birds, and occasionally glimpsed wildlife. And I only fill the bird feeders when it snows). But today, January 3rd, when it was in the 40s outside, and has been quite a bit colder some days lately, I saw this:

 This is not the first time I have seen daffodils sprouting in early January, but this is at least 2 inches tall! I have never seen one this advanced so soon. Unless this is one of the snowdrops I planted in the fall (still early for this kind of growth), but I thought that snowdrops had much thinner leaves than this. Time will tell... but not soon, I don't think. Anyway, nature is supremely optimistic, I find. [Edit–based on something I serendipitously saw on the internet today, these are snowdrop sprouts. I am very happy to see this, because I have wanted snowdrops in my yard for years, because they bloom so early in the spring. But it's a little disappointing to see only one; I hope that more than one bulb grows!]

 It was not the only daffodil that is peeking out already, either.

The bugs I found today were the same ones that I have been seeing for a while now, but I am posting them just because this is a blog about bugs:

 One candy striped leaf hopper enjoying the sunshine today.

I looked under the rain gauge to see if I could find a spider (no), and found this:

 Moth. Not a winter moth (which is a specific species), but a moth in winter. I saw quite a lot of these for a while in late fall.

 The woolly bear caterpillar was in the same spot from a couple of days ago. It is very close to the path to the backdoor, so I moved it closer to the nearby flowerbed so it would not get stepped on.

 Winter ant and winter firefly.

Stonefly

There was a spider in the mailbox when I went out to get the mail today, but I could not find it when I went back out with my camera. But on that subject, I got my two spider calendars done, so here are all the insect calendars I made this year:

 Two that are general insect calendars, Insect Fascination and Insect Inspirations

One of butterflies, moths, dragonflies, and damselflies, Wondrous Wings

 Two caterpillar calendars, Caterpillars and Fuzzy Caterpillars

 Two spider calendars, Ooh, Spiders! and Spiders Are Awesome!

 I know these are LATE, but they are customizable, so you can start them on any month, and you can also add your own significant dates.

New Year Surprise

HAPPY NEW YEAR from the Backyard Bugs!

I didn't get to do a last-blog-of-the-year post yesterday because I didn't find any bugs on my bug walk yesterday, but today was more successful, and a little bit surprising, so the new year of bug hunting is off to a good start. Granted, most of what I saw was the same things I have been seeing for weeks, but there was one amazing find that made my whole walk worthwhile.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I was so surprised to see this hopping around near my feet today! A grasshopper nymph! This wasn't something I found because I was kicking around in the leaf litter and disturbed it, this just appeared out of nowhere and landed right in front of me. You can tell it's a nymph from the undeveloped wings. Now, today was warm (at least when I started my walk–the temperature dropped a few degrees while I was out there), but not outrageously so–it was 50ºF (and painfully windy). It was sunny, as you can probably tell from the picture. But a grasshopper was not at all what I would ever have expected to see on January 1st!

This was less of a surprise:

 There was only one candy striped leaf hopper out today in the winter sunshine.

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of some tiny things crawling around in some moss, and I speculated that they might be springtail nymphs because there were also springtails crawling around in the moss. I didn't really think so, though, because I know what springtail nymphs look like, which is just tinier springtails:

 Here's one on a puddle leftover from last night's rain.

Here is a terrible picture showing the relative sizes of the nymph (toward the left, bright yellow) and the imago (adult, toward the right). Note that the nymph just looks like a tiny version of the adult, without the markings.

 Now look at this creature I found in the moss (there are still a lot of them crawling around in there). If you compare it to the one of just the nymph above, and consider that both pictures were taken at the maximum magnification of my lens, and you can therefore compare their sizes accurately, this one is bigger. There is no way it is going to develop into that. This could be another species of springtail, like a snowflea, perhaps. But, well, I just have no idea. It is extremely tempting to adopt a few just to see what they turn into, but that is probably a terrible idea for a number of reasons, number one being that since I have no idea what it is, I have no idea how to take care of it.

As for the other bugs I saw today:

 A couple of winter ants.

 Woolly bear caterpillar. It would appear that sometimes they decide that they don't like the spot they chose to spend the winter and on warmer days go for a walk to find somewhere else to stay.

This gnat was having a hard time holding on in the wind, I think.

Well, I have finally managed to get two of my calendars ready. There will be more forthcoming, but for now, here's Insect Fascination and Insect Inspirations, collections of insects to brighten the coming months. You can customize the calendars to begin whatever month you like, and add your own important dates. [Edit] The butterflies and dragonflies are ready now, too: Wondrous Wings: Butterflies, Moths, Dragonflies, and Damselflies