Squishing

Today I had to wait until it stopped raining to go outside and look for bugs, but I was keen to do so because the temperature was in the mid-50s, and I thought I should find a lot of bugs. This was another one of those rainy January days when you can't help but think as you squish around the sodden backyard about how much snow you'd be shoveling if the temperature was about 25 degrees colder (Probably about 6-8 inches, and tomorrow will be about 20º colder). However, it was rather late in the afternoon by the time I went out, and I think that the bugs decided not to bother coming out after all that rain. I did see a lot of springtails again, but this time instead of seeing them everywhere, I saw them in large numbers in a few places. Mostly on the garden shed and the wheelbarrow that leans up against it.

As you can see here:

 This is the end of the wheelbarrow handle, about a one-and-a-half inch square.

 

 There was one tree that had a lot of this kind of springtail.

And I found a couple of these, sporting some rain on their backs:

 I tried looking this up, finally, and it may be a Birch Catkin Bug. It's an introduced species, and it makes sense that they would be around in my backyard, because their favorite food (according to Insects of New England and New York) is birch seeds (which I guess are called catkins? [Edit: no, the catkins are the flower spikes]), and black birch is the dominant tree species in my backyard. The book doesn't mention if it's normal to see them in the winter.

 

 

 I found this tiny pupal case attached to a tree. It is made of two bits of a leaf, held together with silk, and inside a tiny caterpillar is spending the winter, turning into a tiny moth.

I saw a few spiders today, so here's Arachnid Appreciation:
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 This was the only one that was even a little bit cooperative, though.

 This one, not so much.