Insects of Winter

©2020 Karen Richards

This insect is winning the Best Bug of Winter prize so far. I’ll tell the story of what it is in a minute. But first, some general comments…

I imagined winter would be a season to edit my photographs, put some words to past experiences, do research, and plan future outings. I didn’t think I’d see very many, or any, insects. Much less, interesting ones. Happily, I was wrong!

I knew right away when I saw this long thin insect delicately ambling across the leaf litter of my compost pile, that this was something I hadn’t seen before. From the top, it looks very much like a stick insect, so that’s where I started my research.

©2020 Karen Richards

There are stick insects (phasmatodea) in the Pacific Northwest, which is heartening, but this isn’t one. People at Bug Guide and on Instagram quickly id’d it as a stilt insect, genus Jalysus. Something I never knew existed, which always makes me very happy.

I’m trying to learn other how to better look for insects. My default has been: 1. Stand in front of flowering plant. 2. Stare and look for movement. But this method won’t help me find anything in winter, and I’ll miss a lot even in the summer. So I tried peeling back bark and flipping over logs. I’m always careful to put things back where I found them.

©2020 Karen Richards

I saw lots of eggs and very, very tiny things, but also a few good catches, like this ground beetle. It has a mite on its back (Mite Rider?) and a couple of tiny insects to the right.

©2020 Karen Richards

This crazy fly is a reminder to keep snapping pictures, even if you think you’re seeing something mundane. I didn’t notice this fly’s bizarre antennae until I saw the pictures. Female mosquitoes have barbed feelers like this, but this insect doesn’t have a mosquito’s mouth parts. I’m still searching for its taxonomy.

©2020 Karen Richards

Occasionally, insects are inside this time of year. Some Hemiptera, or true bugs, live as adults through the winter. This Western Conifer Seed Bug was in my parents’ basement. Even though it wasn’t out in the cold, it was pretty slow moving. Maybe because it hadn’t eaten in weeks?

You may notice all the winter insects shown here are brown or black. I’ve just started seeing flowers outside, and a few more colorful insects. Next time, maybe I can share a wider-ranging palette.

Insect QUESTions 6

Mayflies only live as adults for a couple of days or less, and this one looks really fresh from its watery larva stage because the wings are opaque. Mayflies are the only insects that molt as adults! This one probably has one more stage to go before it mates and lies, spent, on the water.

I was in Utah in late December and hoped to see snow flies, but didn’t really think that I would. These small diptera don’t have wings! They live most of their lives in the dirt and come to the top of the snow to mate. People figure there are fewer insect eaters in the winter, so they’ve found a nice niche for themselves. The two that I photographed had legs missing.

The last two photos from my Instagram posts 50-59 are a pair. I realized there are some butterflies and moths more commonly seen as caterpillars and some more seen as adults. It makes sense I wouldn’t have seen a garden tiger moth adult, because they’re more active at night, but I would like to see one! Here’s a link to a picture from butterfly-conservation.org.

I feel like I see white / light brown moths like this fairly frequently, but I don’t see their caterpillars. Here’s a gallery from BugGuide.net. A caterpillar I’d love to see is a swallowtail butterfly–they’re the ones with “eye” markings on them. I’m planning to plant dill to attract them.

I am into the 60s on this series, but I think my next post will be a more general topic-based one.

Cheers!