Building Bugs

 I haven't done an actual bug walk in months, and today I did two of them. I didn't walk around my traditional backyard route, I took my camera into the woods. Recently most of my walks in the woods have been by flashlight–the days are short and I rarely get a chance to go for my walk at a time that is early enough that I can go out and come back before it gets dark. I have found that after dark is the best time to look for bugs in the stream, as I think I have mentioned before, because it is easier to see under the surface while using a flashlight as a spotlight than during the day when the light often reflects off the surface of the water and obscures what's underneath. Maybe that doesn't make sense, but next time you're out on a hike and there is a stream, and it's not in the shade, you can see what I'm up against. I am not explaining this well...

Anyway, last night on my hike I happened to see some bugs (besides the ones in the stream), and today decided to take my camera out into the woods in the hopes of being able to find them again. It is by no means a sure thing that you can find bugs in the same place a day later, but it happens enough with at least some species, and under some conditions, that I thought it was worthwhile doing a bug walk. But even though that walk came first, I think I will come back to that story, because I got pictures of today's Backyard Bug of the Day on my second walk, which was after dark.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Caddisfly larva. That is my husband's hand, by the way, holding the larval case.

Caddisfly larvae, as I have mentioned before, make themselves little homes to hide out in for protection. Different species use different materials, I think. I found several today that made their cases out of grains of sand, which they bind together with silk. This one is out of the water; I caught two of them (you can actually see the other one in the lower section of the picture) and put them on the bridge so I could take pictures, because it is very difficult to take pictures of them in the water. The water was about 34ºF the other night when we brought a temperature sensor out with us to check it, and I imagine it was about that tonight, by the way. Quite chilly for putting my hand in.

I did manage some underwater shots, though, with a couple of others that were very close to the stream bank, though not with great success:

I didn't notice until just now, looking at this picture, but there are two here–you can just see one off to the right edge of the picture.

It's hard to focus on something underwater, especially running water, but if you look closely you can see this one's body coming out of the case.

Another underwater shot, which I think shows how pretty the case is. Strange people have made jewelry by putting caddisfly larvae in tanks with gemstones and having the larvae make gemstone cases. I hope they wait until the larvae have finished with them before they take them for themselves.

These two you can just barely see the larva emerging from the case:

Now, I have just remembered that I had a caddisfly larva as Backyard Bug of the Day almost two weeks ago, on January 2nd, and since it's this same year, and this same season, technically, I should not have repeated it. Especially since I have barely blogged at all for months. But... my blog, my rules, and I'll break them if I feel like it. Obviously, if you check that last post, these pictures are MUCH better (though I would still like to get better ones...), so, in the interest of showing these interesting insects off better, I am breaking the rules. I guess I am not off to a very good start on the year. So, to make up for it, I am now going to make another bug Backyard Co-Bug of the Day. And I have to say, it's pretty impressive on January 14th to have TWO bugs of the day. But before I move on to that, while we're still mentally in the cold forest stream, I should mention that I did see water beetles, too, as I do on most nights, but they were uncooperative regarding photographs. Not even worth posting them.

I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but caddisly larvae are a biotic indicator. Having them in the stream indicates a healthy stream with good water quality.

Now, it is still surprising to me to be finding water insects when the water is just barely above freezing. But having found the other Backyard Co-Bug of the Day should not be surprising in the winter, given that winter is in their name.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

The first time I ever saw a stonefly in the winter I was surprised, because I didn't know the species was called winter stonefly. I have seen them the last few winters, and it doesn't surprise me now. I saw several on this tree trunk during my walk last night, and there were still several there when I went out mid-afternoon today. When I did my night walk later, though, they were not to be found. 

I do love that I now know there are a lot of winter insects. On my walks today I also saw winter crane flies and a winter moth. I saw a winter ant on a walk a few days ago (my cellphone pictures of that did not come out well enough to post). When I came back from my day walk in the woods I did wander around the backyard with my camera for a bit, and found a bug that I don't think is a winter bug, as it were:

When I first spotted this Hemiptera walking up the front walk I thought it was a birch catkin bug, but it's not colorful enough. Which means I don't know what it is, probably some kind of plant bug.

Our Halloween jack o'lantern has collapsed in on itself and kind of dried up, but when I poked it with a stick, a couple of springtails hopped out, so there may still be a bunch of them in there. I think they are decomposers, so it makes sense to find them there. After our rainy November and December, it's been pretty dry lately, so I haven't been seeing springtails when I'm out. (I did see some on the big pond a while ago, frozen into the ice!). Anyway, here's one that had been hiding out in the pumpkin:

I have been spending a lot of time outside lately, because we have been working on clearing the invasive plants from the field that is part of our new property, and while I have been out there working I have seen a lot of tiny spiders. I have seen them in the woods, too, and after one big rain, when I was looking at a mass of springtails on a pool of water in an old test pit in the woods, I saw one run across the surface of the water. I should probably mention that so far this winter has not been really cold, and most days are in the upper 30s, lower 40s, but it's still a little bit surprising to see so many spiders around. Anyway, I found one while walking around the backyard with my camera today, so here's some Arachnid Appreciation:

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