Morphologic Differences

 Happy Astronomical Spring!

Yes, I know the vernal equinox (for the northern hemisphere, which is where I am) was a couple of days ago, but I didn't find any bugs when I went out that day. My crocuses bloomed right on time for the first day of spring, though:

I am VERY happy to see these blooming in my backyard, especially since my snowdrops failed to bud at all. But I don't just go out looking for flowers, I go out looking for bugs, and it saddens and worries me that for three days now I have not found any bugs on the crocuses.

Now, for a wee lesson on sexual dimorphism, which is the differences in form between female and male insects. This lesson is courtesy of the midges that were swarming the porch light when I got home this evening. They were not at all cooperative, but I was able to get pictures of both female and male midges,  and their dimorphic characteristics are pretty amusing.

First, a female midge:

And a male:

Let's get a closer look at the salient parts: The Antennae:

The male looks like he's ready for Mardi Gras (and a few weeks late for that!).

Female:

Male:

My hypothesis (which I am not going to look up, although I am sure entomologists know the answer to this), is that the male has bigger antennae because they use them to sense pheremones or something from females in order to find mates. I think that is the case with moths, which are similar in that male moths have big, feather-like antennae and females have simpler antennae.

I tried to get a shot of a male and female together. You can see how that turned out.