Sparkling Weather

 We've had a bit more snow since my last post.

Today was sunny, though, and the sunlight sparkled like rainbow glitter on the snow. The temperature that crept above freezing lured me out with my camera; since Sunday's snow it's been below freezing day and night, but I did see a few insects on my snowshoe hikes the last couple of days, so I figured a sunny, warmer day would be a good time to go look for bugs. In fact, when we were out on Sunday during the storm, I saw a winter stonefly crawling around atop the snow. Here's something I am wondering about: how is it that I have lived in places that have snowy winters for so long, going for walks in the snow for many winters, and it is not until this year that I noticed how many insects crawl around on the snow? I didn't do a lot of bug walks in snowy weather in the last few years, but I was certainly out in the snow, and primed to see insects everywhere. I did see them, but I never saw so many. Was I just walking in the wrong place? I spent most of my life thinking that bugs all die in the winter, how in the world did I go for snow hikes for so many years without noticing how untrue that is? Anyway, I was expecting today to be like the day last week, after that storm, when there were insects everywhere. That turned out not to be the case, and for about half of my walk I was annoyed that I had even brought my camera with me. 

But it improved. Backyard Bug of the Day:

Midges. Male...

... and female. I saw several of each, mostly in the valley, which once again was where I found the majority of the bugs on my walk today. Sadly for the midges, I did not see any of the males and females in proximity to each other. I saw one on my snowshoe hike a couple of days ago when the temperature was below freezing, so I was not surprised to find several of them today (which, by the way, was only just above freezing).

Other Bugs:

 

I found a lot of stoneflies, and had to watch where I stepped all along our snowshoe tracks from the last couple of days to keep from stepping on them.

 I found a couple of different species, I think, if I am right that the fact that they are different sizes means they are different species. I know it's hard to tell their sizes from the pictures, but this one...

... and this one were both taken at maximum close-up with the macro lens, so that should give an indication of the difference.

I thought this one was a different species at first glance, because it was bright red, but when I looked closer I could see that it was covered with something. At the time I thought it was some kind of fungus, but looking at the picture on the computer...

... I think it's covered with a whole lot of mites.

This was my favorite stonefly of the day, because it was on a tree trunk at about my eye level, which meant I did not have to bend down or crouch to get a picture of it, unlike all the bugs in the snow.

Also to be found on tree trunks, though only two of them, the only snow fleas I saw today. There were only a handful on each of the two trees. After that huge abundance of them last week after the snow, this week they were scarce.

I found one snow scorpionfly today. Female.

And today's most unexpected find:

A fly, crawling around on the snow. As far as I know, this is not a "winter" fly. But insects do whatever they want, I've noticed.

 I found a few spiders for Arachnid Appreciation:

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This poor jumping spider was dead, curled up on its back on top of the snow. I thought maybe it was just too cold, because I have never seen a jumping spider in the winter, so I moved it to a sunny spot in the hopes that it would warm up and be on its way, but when I went snowshoeing later it was still there, in the exact same curled-up position.