Looking Closer

Today's life lesson from the backyard is to look more closely, because things might not be what they seem. Sometimes when I am doing my bug walk, I check to see what bugs are around, even if I don't take their pictures, or post them. I just want to know what's out there, but as I have mentioned before, I don't want to post pictures of the same things every day. So, I check the two rocks where the snow fleas congregate to see if the are there every day, but I don't post pictures of them every day. Today there weren't any on the rock on the front walk, and there were some, but not many, on their other favorite rock. I didn't take pictures of them on the rock, I just looked at them, and then I happened to spot something else:

 I thought that brown thing was a pine needle, but I decided to look closer. I often think something is nothing much, and then decide to look closer and it is really something very interesting, and that compels me to keep doing it.

And that is how I found today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 So, I looked closer, and I thought it was a tiny caterpillar. Not something I used to expect in February, but I have gotten past having expectations like that, so I figured that the warmer weather (it was almost 50ºF today) must have woken up the tiny caterpillar and it went on walkabout.

 Looking even closer, I thought there was something weird about its head, but it was really small, and hard to see well, so I just figured I wasn't seeing it well. And I walked away, looking for more bugs.

For some reason, though, I went back to look at it again, and this time I got a better look a its head:

 That's when I realized it was not a caterpillar, but a beetle larva. And it looked like it had something in its mouth (caught in its mandibles might be a more accurate description. Or not. I am still no expert on insect anatomy). I am sure it goes without saying that I have no idea what kind of beetle this is.

 What is it that is all over this rock lately? Snow fleas! And what is my Law of Nature? If there is something to eat, there will be something to eat it. And so, all of those snow fleas wandering around on this rock are prey for a beetle larva. Also, if you look at its body, near the head end you can see kind of dark shadowyness inside? I realized from flipping back and forth between pictures that that is probably the snow fleas it has eaten; it's kind of translucent so having eaten something darkly colored, what it has eaten is visible through its body.

 

 A look at the beetle face minus prey.

Oh, and did someone say something about mandibles?

 I saw it eating at least three snow fleas.

 That one got away...

Aside from the usual insects, I saw this crawling on the side of the house:

Western conifer seed bug. I don't know if it's the same one I released outside the other day. It could be, it could not be. It might just have woken from its winter stupor because of the warm weather and ventured out.