Aquatic Mystery

 Today we are veering into some unusual territory, and today's Backyard Bug of the Day is something I have never seen before, know nothing about, and I don't even know if it's an arthropod, much less an insect. And it is very, very small. 

Where did I find it? In the small pond. I didn't bring my camera with me on my walk yesterday, even though it was sunny and warm, and I expected to see bugs on my walk. I also expected to have difficulty walking, because the sunshine and warmth turned the snow to slush and the ground to mud. I didn't want to be carrying my camera when I wasn't sure about my footing, as I have explained on other days. I regretted not having it soon enough, but even if I had it, I would still not have been able to take pictures of the amazing things I am about to show you, because I was not about to lie down in the snow to get the shots. So, even though today wasn't as warm, I went out looking for the same creatures I saw yesterday in the small pond, and I brought my camera AND a waterproof picnic blanket. I was really hoping the tiny aquatic life forms would still be there, and to my delight, there they were zipping around under the water near the edge of the small pond (and probably in the middle, and all through the pond. I was only concerned with what I could get close enough to photograph. I spread the blanket at the edge of the pond (which was at least partially iced over two days ago), laid down on my stomach with my camera, and peered through it at Backyard Bug of the Day:

So... what is it? I don't know. But there's more going on here than at first is evident...

I would like to point out that these things were incredibly tiny, and swimming really fast. It was very hard to get pictures with them even in the frame, much less in focus. I have a lot of pictures from today that just turned out to be pictures of plants and bubbles underwater, because the creatures I was trying to photograph were so fast they just zoomed out of the shot. I had very little chance of actually focusing on an individual. However, I could see that there were a few different little things swimming around in there, and knew I would have to wait to look on the computer to get any sense at all of what I was seeing. I have magnified one, and pointed out a couple of others, and at first I thought these were two different species of.. whatever these are. But looking at them now, I think that magnified one is a female with eggs.[Edit: A friend of mine who obviously remembers a great deal more about what she learned in middle school than I do clued me in that these are copepods. A quick internet search confirms that I am probably right about the egg sacs. So, copepods–not insects, but crustaceans, and therefore still arthropods. Technically not qualified to be Backyard Bug of the Day, but you know how I am about the rules here–I make 'em, and I break 'em].

Definitely looks like eggs...

My first assumption about these was that they were larvae of some insect, but if that one above has eggs, then these are adults. Here's one without eggs. I don't know if it's male or female.

In this shot, see if you can spot any others, and note the springtail in the upper left by the bubbles.

Mystery creature(s), springtails...

There were some other tiny things swimming around, too:

These look less like insects. Or at least, a lot more like larvae, but I still have no idea what they are.

 

This is another shot that if you look around you find more than one thing in it.

Fortunately, I have a new tool available to me for checking these out: I got a microscope for my birthday that hooks up to my computer. After my bug walk I took another walk and brought a bottle out to get some pond water to have a look at what was swimming in it:

They have what I think are called flagellates, filamentous tails that whip around to move them. They almost look like tiny clams... These are swimming around in a droplet of water.

I have other video, too, of the first creature up there, also swimming in a droplet of water:

 I took a few screenshots, which are blurry, but you get a decent look at the thing (and I think you can get a little hint of the functioning of its digestive track, if you know what I mean):

These also have flagellates for locomotion.

 And there were some springtails in the water, too:

This is the bigger of the two I caught, and it's miniscule.

As for Other Bugs:

There was a big swarm of tiny somethings dancing about ten feet in the air over the small pond. No doubt about it, the small pond was the place to be today.

I'm not seeing as many stoneflies lately, and now I am finding them on tree trunks again. There's a lot less snow for them to crawl around on.

 

And speaking of bugs on snow, snowfleas have basically disappeared from the snow this week, but today I found them on a rock where I have often found them in other years, on sunny, mild winter days.

One insect that has been noticeably absent this winter has been winter fireflies. Normally I see them on mild, sunny days all winter, but this winter, while not especially cold, has maybe been a little too cold for them. And it hasn't been very sunny in general. I have been keeping an eye out for them, and yesterday I even checked their favorite tree by the driveway, but I didn't find any there. Finally, I spotted two of them on my walk. I didn't post them yesterday, because I had plans to go out with my camera today, and figured I would get better pictures, but today I didn't see any, so I am going to post the pictures I took yesterday with my phone. Since this is not at present a daily blog I am having to change my rule about pictures having to be from the day. So here they are, the long searched-for winter fireflies on a beautiful winter day:

 I've been seeing caddisfly larvae in the stream on occasion, and I spotted some water beetles yesterday, too. In fact, I saw a really small water beetle in the small pond yesterday. With all the snow melting there's water in the ponds, the streams, the pits... water, water everywhere. It's so much nicer than the drought we had last year. We're a little behind on precipitation so far this year; I hope the drought doesn't come back.

The seasonal fluctuations continue to make changes for the skunk cabbage sprout in the stream–now the snow is melted, but its little island is flooded because of all the melting snow, which has raised the water level in the stream. I can't really tell, and I didn't notice at the time, but it looks like there's another sprout in the lower center of the picture, poking out of the leaf debris.

I've got some terrible pictures for Arachnid Appreciation:

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Most of the things I found today were unbelievably small. I saw some mites while taking pictures of the snowfleas, so small that I would not have been able to see them except through the camera lens, and even then I only saw them because they were moving. Unfortunately, I couldn't get better pictures than this, partly because once I lost sight of them I couldn't find them again.