First of the Season

There has been snow on the ground in Montpelier for a few weeks now.  Longer at higher elevations.  But only now have I gotten out to look for bugs.  On a short walk to collect firewood today, I ran across a few insects on the surface of the meager 2-inch thick snow. 

My first of the season was a beetle, likely the Ocellate Rove Beetle Carcinocephalus flavidus.  I found it perched on a log near the trailhead with its wings popping out.  Only the males are long-winged in this species. 

Because there had already been a good deal of melting since the last snowfall, the forest floor was littered with bits of bark, leaves, and twigs.  Spotting insects on the ground would not have been easy.  The only other insects I saw were in the air.  Two winter craneflies (Trichoceridae) were spotted on the wing.  One landed on my pant leg just long enough to snap a picture before it was gently floating on its way.

With a 40 degree, overcast day, it seemed inevitable that I'd see some insects.  Hopefully this will be the start of a productive winter for active insects!

Snow Flies Revealed

A female snow fly (Chionea sp.) near NBNC on 1/4/13

I just found an awesome article on snow flies.  It is such a good feeling to have an interest in an obscure insect and all the sudden discover that it is even more complex and beautiful than you ever imagined.  Here's all you ever wanted to know (and more) about snow flies.

Winter-pillars

Wow, winter is almost over!  A few short weeks without a post, and my field season has withered away.  Well despite the blog silence, I have continued to actively seek out winter insects with much success.  I'll have a number of back-order blog posts to make, but here are a few sightings that are fairly recent.

Lepidoptera seem to require fairer weather than some other winter-active insects, so it hasn't come as a surprise to find lep numbers on the rise as temps become more mild.  Here are two recent snow caterpillar sightings:



While doing some birding last Friday, this "cutworm" was crawling across the snow in a parking lot in Burlington, near a soldier beetle larva.  Thanks to the help of Sam Jaffe, this fellow was ID'd as Noctua pronuba.

Another caterpillar, encountered the next day on the snow in Colchester in a wetland:

While very small, this caterpillar has the distinctive markings of a Haploa sp.  As adults, they come in stunning patterns of black-and-white, with orange in their bodies. 
 

Spidery Day

Finally, some fresh snowfall polished the landscape and allowed for insects to stand out against the brilliant white background.  The most abundant critters crawling around in the balmy mid-30's weather were spiders.  All told, at least four species were represented (with one individual found dead on the snow).  Without finding any other insects most of the morning, I wondered what they might be eating.  Maybe each other?

I only found one that looked like the one on the right.  I was hoping its unique pattern would be distinctive, and it was!  It was recognized on bugguide as being in the genus Phrurotimpus. 

Another spider that I bumped into looks like a ground crab spider.  Like the Phrurotimpus, this is this was the only individual of its species that I found on the walk.  If I'm right about the ID on this crab spider, they are commonly found on the ground and will eat both insects and other spiders.

 

And yet another spider was the Long-jawed Orbweaver.  I'm not sure if I'm seeing one species of these or many, but they are definitely the most abundant on the snow, with around 10 seen today.

Perched on a Pedestal

On a walk on the Irish Hill trail yesterday, winter insects were plentiful.  For the second time this season, I bumped into some winter midges.  The two males I encountered first were walking around on the snow as usual, but the third I found was a female and she was staying put.  I took note of her chosen perch, which was atop a large boulder (she was in the red square in the image below).

 

The tiny midge that I found sitting atop the rock wouldn't budge.  I was short on time, so I just snapped a very quick picture:

So, the question that was going though my head was why?  Did she choose this rock because she had recently emerged from the subnivean (beneath the snow) zone through the opening under the rock?  Did she think this would be a good place to disperse her pheromones to attract a mate? (disclaimer: I'm not even sure that is how midges attract mates)  Whatever the reason, she looked very mighty up on her rock!

Here's a picture of a male I found earlier in the walk, with his feathery antennae:

Urban Stonefly

The weather the past three days (mid to upper 30's) has been perfect for winter insects, and they have been everywhere.  Literally.  This evening, at around 6pm, I was heading into the Unitarian Church to get ready for the Naturalist Journeys lecture and I noticed a black speck on the door as I reached for the handle (see the red square in the picture below).  I bent down to get a closer look, and it turned out to be a winter stonefly!

Presumably this bug was attracted to the light above the door.  The North Branch of the Winooski River runs just a few hundred feet from here.  But the river is canalized in this stretch in the downtown and not the sort of place I would picture a stonefly larva growing up.  None-the-less, there it was, just sitting on the door waiting to be discovered.

A True Winter Bug

On my quests for insects this winter, I think the first Hemiptera I bumped into was on January 30.  It was found alongside the trail at NBNC, in the riparian area by the community garden.  Temperatures were fairly mild (over 40 F), but it still surprised me to find this fellow:

This image was identified on Bugguide.net as being in the genus Nabis.  They are supposedly more common in warm weather, but can still be active year-round.   Here's the Nabis from another angle:

NBNC Ramble 2/13/13

On a morning hike in Montpelier, winter insects can be plentiful.  Conditions seemed perfect this morning: overcast, ~36 F, intermittent light snow.  I went for a nice long walk through the North Branch Nature Center (NBNC) and into North Branch River Park (NBRP).

This is a hike that I take often.  Through NBNC, I follow a narrow strip of riparian forest at the edge of a large field.  After passing over a footbridge, I enter NBRP.  I pass a complex of beaver ponds on my left, and eventually follow the spring-fed streams that fill the beaver ponds up a steep hill.  The diversity of habitats might help explain the diversity of insect life here, even in winter.

At NBNC, and in the less forested parts of NBRP, I found the most abundant invertebrate of the morning: Long-jawed Orbweavers:

A less-frequent encounter today was with a planthopper that was in the middle of the trail.  I think I've narrowed it down to the genus Stenocranus. A white line bisects the planthopper laterally, making it look sliced in half... literally.

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My walk proved to be extremely productive, with 20+ individuals observed.  My overall breakdown was:

• 2 Snow Flies
• 10+ Long-jawed Orbweavers
• 2 other spiders (2 species)
• 5 Winter Stoneflies
• 1 Planthopper
• 1 Moth
• 1 Winter Cranefly (found dead)
• numerous springtails
  

Freezing Cold Entomology

It is remarkable that even a single species of insect can be active during a Vermont winter.  Yet scores of species thrive in these freezing conditions.  As improbable as it may seem, many arthropods have special adaptations to overcome the challenges of operating in cold temperature: frostbite, locomotion, lack of food, susceptibility to predation, and other cold-related woes. Over the past few months of wandering field and forest for winter-active insects, I have grown to appreciate the surprising diversity of species that are living on the thermal edge.  This blog is devoted to those that defy the odds.  Those invertebrates who make winter feel like "almost spring".  Here's to winter insects!