Joie de la Vie des Insectes

I heard the crickets singing today. They were not many, and they were not loud, but I loved hearing them, those stalwarts who don't care that winter comes every night and sometimes stays all day. The sun was out, and they must have been warm in the leaf litter, and so they sang.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Leaf bug on the mums. The mums were okay after the first frost, and even the second, but when we had the extended freeze, that was it for them, and for most of the bugs that were feeding there. However, not all bugs care if a plant is still alive.

Flies, in particular, are attracted to flowers that have been killed by frost:

Today the backyard was full of various kinds of flies:

I only saw a few springtails, though:

 These tiny (juvenile) ones on a puddle on a rock...

 ... and these two adults on the water in the birdbath.

 This tiny wasp (I think) was also on the water in the bird bath, but I didn't think it wanted to be there, so I scooped it out. It quickly flew away.

 No springtails on this tree today, and only a few candy striped leaf hoppers.

And now, the rest of this post will be winter crane flies showing what I am anthropomorphizing as joie de vivre:

When you get too close to a swarm of winter crane flies they all fly down and land.

Springing in the Fall

Today my backyard was suddenly overrun by some of the most amusing arthropods. I say overrun, because there were so many of them, and they were everywhere, but if you're not like me, scrutinizing tree trunks, leaf litter, and the surface of puddles, you could very well walk around my entire backyard and not be aware of the tiny horde. They were many, but they are small.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Springtails! In assorted sizes. I have no idea why they hang out on the surface of puddles, but it is fun to watch them bounce off of each other. I don't even know what they do when it hasn't just rained, and there are no puddles. Do they get excited when it rains? "Yay, we can go skating!"Strange little creatures. And I am still not clear on whether they are considered insects or not. Different sources say different things.

 I also don't know why the big one kept climbing on top of the middle-sized ones. And I don't know how or why they zoom together, and then spring apart. I found these on the surface of a puddle on a rock.

   Those really little ones were so small that I could not see them with my eyes alone, only by looking through the camera lens.

 

Then when I went into the woods, I noticed that some of the leaves had little puddles of water on them, and those puddles...

 ... had springtails on them!

Then I went and looked at the tree where I often see candy striped leaf hoppers. I didn't find any leaf hoppers, but...

 ... there were springtails all over the leaves.

I also saw springtails on almost every tree trunk. They were everywhere.

 There were fewer ants around today.

 In an attempt to find bugs that were not springtails, I turned over a rotting log. Underneath I found:

 Not an insect.

A lot of bristletails:

 

 

 

 And some kind of eggs. I assume insect, but I guess they could be some kind of amphibian. Or do all amphibians lay their eggs in water? They are kind of large for insect eggs.

Public Service Announcement: If it's warm enough to find bugs of any kind outside it's warm enough to find ticks. They don't die when the frost comes, and any day above freezing you could get one attached to you. This is why I am still wearing my tick repellent pants when I do my bug walk. 

 

 Before today, I had not seen a tick since early spring (except attached to the necks of rabbits). Today I found six of them on some tall grass in front of my house.

Arachnid Appreciation:

 

 I think this spider is feeding on a springtail.

There was a mite under the rotting log, too.

Slow Season

At this point in the year, you can just assume most of the time that if I don't post that day, it's because either it was too cold to go out and look for bugs, or I went out and didn't find any. Today I really thought that I wasn't going to find any, not because it was too cold, but because it took me a really long time to find one.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Wasp. Small enough that at first I thought it was an aphid.

Other than that, I saw a few ants:

And a few winter crane flies:

This is the only one that would sit for a picture, though.

I also saw the remains of a bird that had been eaten by a predator, and though that was sort of interesting, it was also gross, so I decided against taking a picture of it. Curious, though, is the fact that the spot where I found it is, I am coming to realize, the most popular spot in my backyard to come upon the remains of birds eaten by predators. I have no idea why.