What Season Is This?

Ah, another beautiful day in January. We flirted with 60ºF today, but I don't think we made it. Still, it was glorious. I am not sure we can call this a January thaw, because January has mostly been pretty mild to begin with, and there have been days at least the the low 50s scattered throughout. But I will say this - we are expecting a nor'easter tomorrow into the next day, and because of this mild weather pattern, we are supposed to get a lot of rain rather than a huge pile of snow. A nor'easter, you see, is not a snowstorm by definition - it has more to do with the wind, and the direction of it. Usually our nor'easters are snowstorms, because usually it's cold here in the winter, but at the moment we're having rain temperatures.

But enough about things that haven't happened yet - today was lovely, sunny, and warm, so I went out looking for bugs before I went off to the beach (no, I didn't go swimming, and I was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt - it's not THAT warm here).

The warm weather is obviously waking up (though they aren't really sleeping lots of bugs, and though I haven't actually seen a lot of them, I think I have heard them. A lot of insects and other creatures spend the winter in the leaf litter, and if you stand very still and quiet you can hear the sounds of very small things stirring among the dried leaves in the woods. It's the sound of nature stirring.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Some kind of Hemiptera.

 

 I found another in another part of the yard.

 There were springtails around, too.

 And quite a lot of candy-striped leaf hoppers. It's curious that it's only the candy-striped leaf hoppers I ever see on these warm winter days, never other species of leaf hoppers or other plant hoppers.

I would say that it was the arachnids, and not the insects, that won the day in the backyard today, though. The last few days I have seen a lot of random spider threads on plants in the backyard, but haven't seen any spiders until today. Arachnid Appreciation:
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 There were a couple of these spiders on a rock - at least two of them, but they were small and moving around so it is possible that there were three.

 

 There was a jumping spider on the same rock.

 Presumably the same harvestman from yesterday, because it was in the same place.

 And those tiny mites that were with it were still there.

Too small to see, really.

January Picnic

On this lovely January day with the temperature in the mid 50s we decided to eat our lunch outside in the arbor. Today was the kind of day that would be considered freezing in September, but was gloriously balmy in January, even a January that hasn't been all that cold most of the time. I shared a picture of our picnic on social media, and my mother commented that at this time of year at least there are no flies out.

But there were:

 There were several flies basking in the apricity* on the front of the house.

*Apricity means the warmth of the winter sun. In case that's a new word for you.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Also enjoying the apricity today were several candy-striped leaf hoppers.

 There were six or seven of these on one mountain laurel plant.

 And an ant.

 And something waiting for actual springtime, rather than just a spring-like winter day.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Harvestman...

 And I didn't notice these when I took the picture, but they do look like mites, so that would make them arachnids, not insects. Not that I can really tell. They were TINY.

Snow Comes and Goes

Ah, first blog of 2017! We've had a lot of cold weather, and then over the weekend, adding up two snowstorms we got a little over a foot of snow, but it's warmed up the last two days, and most of that is gone. So, with temperatures in the low 50s, and having spotted a crane fly on my porch when I went out to get the mail, I decided to do a bug walk today. Mostly I found what I expected - a few small swarms of crane flies that I did not photograph, a winter firefly that I did - and  a couple of things I did not expect.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Rove beetle. I prodded a rotting log and found this inside.

The aforementioned winter firefly, basking on a tree trunk as they are wont to do on warm winter days.

I was surprised to find an ant crawling on another tree trunk.

The only surprising thing about finding this springtail gliding on a tiny puddle is that there were not more of them.

As I said, we had around a foot of snow a few days ago, but between the rain last night, and a couple of days of warmth, most of it was gone today, except for about an inch in some of the shaded areas of the backyard. There was plenty to see on the snow, though:

 Obviously there were animals (voles?) tunneling under all that snow...

 ... and in the ground, too.

 There were many animal footprints in that thin remaining layer, all of which must have been made today.

 I found this cocoon on a tree branch - waiting for spring, just like me.

Optimism

Today I had a little time, and a lot of sunshine, and I was feeling optimistic after finding bugs on the front porch last night, so I did a quick bug walk before we went out for the day. I saw a few gnats, nothing interesting or even photographable, but I did enjoy the sunshine, which has been scarce lately, and I found an interesting insect in the house.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Plume moth, on the bathroom skylight. I had to stand on the counter, one foot on either side of the sink, to get this picture. I am pretty sure this is another insect that came in with the Christmas tree. This is definitely NOT an insect I see this time of year. Another ChristMOTH?

Midnight Moth

As I eased my way cautiously up my icy front walkway late this evening - almost midnight - I had no idea what was waiting for me on my front porch, but from the fact that I am writing a blog about it you can probably guess...

Backyard Bug of the Day!

 I am calling this my Merry ChristMOTH. There were two of them, but the other was too high up on the wall to get a picture.

There was a tiny crane fly, too. Today the temperature was in the mid-40s (and it rained most of the day), but it was around the freezing mark when I got home, so I was really surprised to see insects on the porch. Pleasantly surprised.

Happy Holidays, Bug Fans!

Winter

Today was the winter solstice here in the northern hemisphere, also known as the first day of meteorological winter, and the shortest day of the year. It's not my favorite day, as you can imagine, because I like long hours of sunlight. But tomorrow the days start getting longer (though it will take a while to noticed), and that makes me happy. We've had a bit of actual wintery weather lately, cold, a bit of snow (that was mostly washed away by rain), and it has been too cold to find bugs, which is why you haven't seen a new post in a while. But this evening while I was wrapping Christmas presents on my dining room table I found an insect crawling among the ribbons.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Ladybeetle. It's not uncommon to find these in the house in the winter, because they try to come inside to keep warm. It's a little bit surprising that this is the first one I've found, but we didn't have the big swarms outside in the fall, so I don't think there were as many around this year. Not that I am complaining. One year we had a bit of an infestation, and even though they are generally considered one of the cuter and more charming insects, having hundreds of them in your house is unpleasant. They bite, they smell, and just nobody wants insects crawling all over the place, not even me. But I didn't mind this one. It is possible that it came in with the Christmas tree last weekend - sometimes I will find insects a few days after getting the tree.

Whatever holidays you may be celebrating, I hope they are happy!

A Speck

Last night we had a wee bit of snow, but then it turned to rain, and by noon today the snow was gone and the precipitation had stopped, and it had warmed up a bit, so I thought I might as well go outside and look for some bugs.

I mostly just found mud. I almost wiped out once, slipping in a muddy patch.

I did see some bugs - a few of the swarming crane flies, some sow bugs, and springails.

And this, the Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I don't know what this is. I can't even see it well enough to look it up. It might be a very, very young springtail, which seems pretty likely given that they are what's around right now, but I really have no idea.

 Even magnified, it's tiny.

 Here it is with a couple of springtails. Bear in mind that the larger of these two is about a millimeter long. The smaller of them (which I think is a different species?) I can barely see without the camera lens. I am not sure if I could see the Backyard Bug of the Day without it or not. You may remember one of the most recent blogs I posted I had pictures of a lot of springtails, and a tiny speck of a thing that I had not noticed when I took the pictures. Well, this is probably that tiny thing. And even when I saw it, and focused on it, it's still too small to know what it is.

 This was also a similar scenario to that day with the springtails and the tiny speck with legs. Again I found these in a puddle on the same rock, and it was two of the same critters who were being pushed together somehow.

 But this time the little one kept crawling on the bigger one.

 

 

 And another came to join them. Except it didn't appear to do it on purpose. I don't know what force was directing them to the same spot - they didn't seem to be swimming (though that might not be the best word anyway - they are on top of the water. And they can spring from there). On the other hand, they do have that spring underneath - maybe it pushes them around? Last time I saw these I thought those prongs sticking out the back of the smaller of these springtails was the spring outstretched in the act of springing, but today it was just out there, so maybe not.

 There's a fourth one at the top of this picture - and the small one crawling on the large(r) one again.