Itty, Itty, Bitty, Bug Babies

Today was colder and wetter than yesterday, and also less buggy. I found something interesting, and I am not sure what it is, other than Backyard Bug of the Day:

 

 I think it is a springtail nymph. I spotted some springtails on a patch of moss on a rock, and while I was taking pictures of them, I happened to notice a few of these tiny larval-looking things around them.

 

 I have seen tiny, obviously young, springtails before, and they look just like the adults, but smaller. I am not 100% sure that's what these are, but they are definitely tiny.

 Note the springtail at the bottom of the picture, and compare with the tiny nymphish things. Remember also that adult springtails are tiny.

 The body doesn't look very springtailish, but the face does.

There were springtails all over again today, but maybe not as many as yesterday. Today, though, I did find them on puddles of water:

 There were a lot of them on this small puddle, and they would drift together into a clump and then suddenly spring apart. They did this several times, in different spots on the surface of the water, until this group bunched together and stayed that way.

 Sprung apart.

 Note the nymph, the tiny yellow speck on the outskirts of the clump.

Other than the springtails, some winter fireflies, and a few crane flies and other small things I saw flying around, there wasn't much to see.

 This is much bigger than the winter ants, but I don't know if that means it's another species, or if there are some that are larger?

And speaking of winter ants, I saw some, but they will be in Arachnid Appreciation today:
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 Well, it appears that the spider from yesterday is dead, given that it was covered in ants today.

I have found a surprising number of spider species the couple of days.

Springtail Weather

Today was a little bit warmer, and soggy from a little bit of overnight rain, and the result was that there were springtails EVERYWHERE in my backyard:

On rocks, on trees, on lawn furniture... The only place I did not see them was on the surface of puddles, though I did look for them there, because it is usually a good place to find them.

I didn't even see this one when I took the picture. I was taking a picture of the berries, and saw the tiny critter when I looked at the shot on the computer.

The package bin was covered with springtails.

I'm not sure, but I think this is another species of springtail.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

I think this is a moth fly. Which is a moth, not a fly. Very small. I found it walking around on the hood of the car.

Also on the hood of the car: a midge.

It wasn't sunny (quite overcast, in fact), but one candy striped leaf hopper was out on what I have come to think of as the leaf hopper tree.

Sow bugs also like soggy weather.

The weather was warm enough for the winter ants to be out again. I saw them in a few places in the backyard today, not in groups, just individual ants. I saw them on trees...

... on the chrysanthemums, and on leaf litter.

This winter firefly is still in the same spot where it has been for weeks, but it has changed positions a couple of times in the last few days.

I saw winter crane flies through my windows, but I didn't find any on my bug walk.

Soggy woolly bear caterpillar. I am not sure it was still alive.

Not an insect, or even an arthropod:

 I found a couple of baby slugs today. I did not expect slugs when it has been so cold lately.

Second to the springtails in abundance today (a DISTANT second) were the spiders. I found multiple species. Arachnid Appreciation:

I happened to disturb some kind of tussle between these two spiders. I kicked aside a leaf while trying to get a better vantage point for another picture, and saw these two tumbling together. It happened very fast, and then this was the aftermath by the time I could bend down to see. They were both alive, I think, but kind of sluggish. I don't know if this was a fight, and attempt by one to eat the other, or a courtship attempt gone awry.

I came back later to check on them and this one was gone, but the other one was still there. It would move its legs if I prodded it with a stick, but I don't think it was well.

Mite

I have a few spider ornaments for my Christmas tree that I made after reading about the folktale (Ukrainian?) about the Christmas spiders who decorate a tree with their silk threads. Well, I was decorating our tree today and found that it came with a real, live Christmas spider!

Back to Normal

I've been looking forward to today for over a week. For the last 10 days, actually. And what was so exciting about today? The long-range weather forecast. Today was the day we were finally going to get out of the 30s, back to "normal" temperatures for the time of year, and, from my perspective, back to the kind of weather that would make it more likely that I would find bugs in my backyard today. You know, every once in a while I think back to how my life used to be before I started doing this, and if you had told me ten years ago that some day I would be excited about the weather being nice enough to go outside and find bugs, I would have thought you were crazy. And yet, here I am, happy that the deep chill has ended temporarily so I can find insects.

It snowed yesterday. And the needle ice did not melt; the ground must still be cold, even though the air temperature reached the upper 40s:

The ice is quite muddy.

The insects did not disappoint me. There were not many (except for a few small swarms of winter crane flies, which I could not photograph because it was cloudy), but they were not the same bugs I have been seeing every day, those "winter" bugs.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Western conifer seed bug. Missing a leg on one side.

Stonefly

I found this empty cocoon/chrysalis. I can't tell how long it has been empty, but I love that it appears to have a flip-top (bottom?) opening.

There were other species of flies, but I didn't manage to get pictures of them.

 Arachnid Appreciation:
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