Ah, what a beautiful Spring day! In February!
But as for today...
As you know, I have not been walking much recently, but today it was 60ºF, and it was much too beautiful a day NOT to go for a walk. And unlike my recent walks in the snow, when I didn't want to bring my camera because with my bad knee I was afraid of falling and didn't want another thing to throw me off, today I strapped on my camera carrier and headed for the woods. I'll just get it out of the way now and say I was a little bit disappointed in what I was able to find, just because I was expecting to find more species of insects today. On most of my walks in the last month or so I have seen at least one insect, and that is including days (and nights) when it was freezing or just above. So I thought that on a day in the 60s I would see a lot of different kinds of bugs, and a lot of the ones I did see. But other than two exceptions, to be seen shortly, I saw mostly single individuals. Ah, well, I should not complain. I had a beautiful spring day in February!
Backyard Bug of the Day:
Candy striped leaf hopper on beech leaf. This particular beech tree is one where I know to look for candy striped leaf hoppers on pleasant winter days. In fact, a couple of days ago, when the temperature was only in the 40s, but it was sunny, I found one on this tree while showing a friend who had stopped by part of my woods. I used to think that the temperature had to be in the 60s for these to come out, but in the last few years I found out that it doesn't have to be that warm. However, the one I found a couple of days ago was a solitary find. Today, with the temperature about 15 degrees warmer, there were dozens.
Other Bugs:
Even when there was ice on parts of the stream I have been finding aquatic insects all winter. Here are a couple of caddisfly larval cases made out of sand from the bottom of the stream.
Aquatic beetle. I see more of these on night hikes, but I saw a couple today.
Another caddisfly larva, this one with a case made out of dead leaves.
If you know what you're looking at, you can see that its head is sticking out.
I know, this doesn't help much.
I saw a few swarms of winter crane flies. That is the other bug I saw in large numbers today:
Winter stone fly. Last year I saw hundreds of these, particularly when there was snow on the ground; they were all along the paths we walked, crawling on the snow. So far this year I have seen two; this is one of them.
When we got home in the evening this male midge was on the front porch. You can tell it is a male from its feathery antennae. The females have very small, plain antennae. I assume the males need to sense pheremones or something from the females to find a mate.
As I said, I was hoping to see more bugs today; last night I saw a beetle on a tree, and I expected to see snow fleas, and winter fireflies–this is exactly the kind of day they should have been basking on tree trunks. I have not seen any this winter. Overall, though I have seen bugs on my walks this winter, there have been nowhere near as many as I saw last year. This is sad and puzzling.
Interesting note: tomorrow it is supposed to snow.
The arthropods I have seen most frequently on my walks in the last few months have actually been spiders, including a couple I spotted walking on snow. So it was no surprise to find them today. I found two of them on the same sprig of the beech tree where the candy striped leaf hoppers were sunning themselves. A good place to hang out if you like to prey on insects, I would say. Arachnid Appreciation:
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I frequently find these tiny spiders on my walks, especially at night when their webs reflect the light of my flashlight, which makes them easier to see.
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