Winter Is On Its Way

Have you missed me? Or at least, have you missed the bugs in my backyard? I have been missing them. I haven't gone away, but I also haven't gone outside... much. It has been cold, and sometimes snowy, and there has been no point in looking for bugs. Even on sunny-ish days (and those have been scarce) I have not been seeing any sign of insects, and they're just not around when the high doesn't get out of the 20s. But today... it hit 50ºF! So, outside I went, camera in hand. It wasn't terribly buggy, but there were bugs around. It's kind of fascinating, really, that for bugs, seasons don't always seem to matter. Aside from life cycles that are very short for some insects, they don't seem to care much what season it is. Is it warm enough to be out and about? If so, they are out and about. Things that I think everyone associates with summer, and assumes go away in the winter, were out and about in my backyard today. But first...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this has been Backyard Bug of the Day already this year, but that's the kind of rule I am going to ignore because it's December, a couple of days away from the solstice, and it's been really cold. So to find this bug, which is some kind of Hemiptera, was a cool thing to happen.

 It was not at all surprising to find this bug, a winter firefly. The only thing surprising is that I didn't find more of them; I saw only two.

 I did see several flies, though, which is one of those bugs that I think are more associated with summer, but I have seen pretty much every sunny, not-freezing day this month.

 There were a couple of different species around.

And this one sneaked into the house, and into my cup, and I was very annoyed.

Ants are another insect that are mostly associated with summer, but I have found occasionally in the winter. I know, it's a terrible picture, but I am just recording that it was out there.

I was looking for something in particular when I went outside today. There is still a little bit of snow on the ground, and I was looking for snow fleas. Snow fleas are not fleas, they are actually a species of springtail, and they can sometimes be found jumping around on snow on warmer winter days. I have only ever seen them on tree trunks in my backyard, so I was hoping to find some on the snow.

I did find a springtail on the snow, but it was a different species from the snow flea. This absolutely shows that insects are not just summer creatures.

No spiders today, which was sort of disappointing, if not surprising.

Now, another shameless plug for my calendars and other items in My Zazzle Shop.