Spring Surprises, Even Though It's Not Spring Yet

If you are a user of Facebook, you probably know about Facebook memories, where Facebook will post a picture you took on that date in a previous year, to show you your memories. It is surprising, really, that my Facebook memory pictures are so rarely pictures of insects, because during certain times of year, at least, that is mainly what I post. I suspect that the algorithms that choose the photos look for human faces, and not bug faces. Occasionally Facebook chooses a bug, though. Today my Facebook memory picture was from two years ago, and it was a picture of a snow flea. "HA!" I thought, "THAT'S not going to happen again today. I don't think I even have snow fleas in my backyard anymore!"

Then I went outside to do my bug walk.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 Snow flea! You probably saw that coming.

 They are much smaller than I remember, which may be why I had a hard time finding them this year, but I was looking, on tree trunks and snow, the places I thought to find them. Today I found them on a rock covered with lichen (the rock was covered with lichen, not the snow fleas. They may have been eating the lichen for all I know, which would mean they were full of lichen, but not covered with it).

As I am sure you know, because I have mentioned it a number of times, snow fleas are not fleas, they are a species of springtail. The can sometimes be found in huge numbers on snow on those warmer, sunny days when there is still snow on the ground (certainly not the case now). I have never seen them on snow in my yard; usually when I have seen them they have been on tree trunks.

 There were about a dozen on the rock, but I couldn't manage to get pictures of them all in a group; they are small, they were spread out, and they were in grooves of the rock.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 

 This might be some kind of aphid, or something related? I found it because I was looking at the moss just because it's pretty, and saw the glint of sunlight on a tiny wing.

I think this is the same thing? Found on the picnic table, which is not nearly so picturesque.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #3:

 

 I couldn't believe it when I saw this. A caterpillar! It really feels like spring these days...

It's not spring yet, but it has been feeling like it for a while. We've had about twice the normal amount of precipitation for this month, and very little of it has been snow–we're actually a little below normal for snowfall this winter. What does that mean? It has been raining a lot. Because the temperature has been quite a bit above normal most of the month. I keep trying to remind myself that March can be pretty wintery (and snowy), but it's hard to believe it is going to be this year, since other than the severe cold snap to start out they year it has been warmer than normal most of the time. I mean, I have been seeing snakes in February! (I didn't see any today, but I did look for them). The first day of meteorological spring is in a couple of days (on March 1) and then astronomical spring later in March, but my backyard seems to think that spring is now:

Daffodil sprouts last week, crocus sprouts today...

This was a surprisingly buggy day, given that it wasn't that warm, or that sunny, and other days lately that were warmer and brighter have not had a lot of different kinds of bugs. And maybe I went overboard having 3 Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day, but how could I not? Other Bugs:

 Another stonefly (?).

And more springtails:

 This one was sailing around on a puddle of water formed by a joint in my upside-down lawn chair.

 Tiny wasp. The reason I found the snow fleas is because I saw this wasp on the rock and was trying to get a picture of it. It was not interested in staying still.

 There were a lot of winter fireflies around today. Here's just one.

I found a couple of twice-stabbed lady beetles, too:

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Tiny spider on lichen.

Same species, I think, on the same branch as the caterpillar. Of course, it was only there because I found it dangling from my arm and I put it on the branch.

I don't think I have ever seen those white markings, though.