January 28, 2018
Martha O'Kennon
The usual weather report: Freezing/not freezing/balmy for January. Two weeks of perfect January weather. There weren't too many picture-taking days. Usually my hands were chilled by the time I did one circuit of the workshop, where several kinds of bugs were either not there or AWFULLY tiny. I'm thinking of upping my camera to a stronger macro lens so that I can see the beasties without taking a huge number of shots and using only one. The siding is now covered with a lot of tiny grain-like things. Since they change their configurations from day to day, I'm guessing that they are actually eggs or very small babies. But many times you get a shot that has a certain abstract je ne sais pas. One thing that we started seeing in December and now are seeing more of are the springtails. (Did you know that springtails have six legs but are not insects? They used to be insects when I was a kid - I suppose we have DNA to thank for the change.) We'll be seeing a sampling of them.
There were a few real ants to celebrate. This is our usual little carpenter ant, one of the many species inside a fairly large genus. I don't think they are eating the shop, because its siding is steel. But they probably like all the sitting ducks - eggs of other creatures. Then again, we did have a few (or one) very odd-looking ant or something about the size of an ant but with strange features.
There was this one aphid or barklouse, too small to be able to tell the difference. Usually the barklice are showing up earlier than aphids. The second one is definitely the leftovers of one of our more common barklice, Graphopsocus cruciatus.
The rove beetles are still here, or should I say, are back again? These two images were taken 5 days apart.
There were two bugs on the siding this time. First, a very old friend, Drymus unus, who graces the shop wall all winter. And then, a very tiny picture of a very tiny bug-shaped insect, which I haven't identified.
This looks like one of those old twig cases falling apart. Is that some creature peeking out? The second image is of a different case of different construction, something smooth like skin. You can see a segment or two of its contents poking from the bottom. The third is the thing I called an egg case last time. Is it cracking open?
Now for some unidentified creatures or unidentified stages of creatures. What is this feathery object? How about this Medusa-like form? And this one?
Here is one that was so tiny I didn't even see it as a leafhopper at first. But I went back to my file of leafhoppers and found one, also a very tiny one, from April 3, 2017, that looks as if it might be a match! The third one has been in the same place for many days now. It looks sort of like the face of an old man with brown fluffy ears, but nah! It is probably a fly of some sort.
What can this be? And this? Oh, I know this one is a dragon!
We thought these were spider eggs coming out of the egg case on January 11, and here we see the same scene two weeks later, with many fewer babies out there. Maybe it is almost hatched and we will soon be seeing baby spiders, either Common House Spiders or maybe Pirate Spiders or maybe something more exotic...
This most weird of all things may be a very young cribellate spider. The second image is of one from May 2017. And so is the last shot. They can fold themselves up into a stick-like thing and go through all the in-between stages to get to the final completely unfolded spider. The origin of the transformers!
Speaking of spiders, here is a new one for the month. It has a rounded abdomen, so may be a cobweb spider.
Now here is the piece of resistance you have all been waiting for. The springtails! They are divided into four families, the elongate ones, the globular ones, and a couple of others! Here is a very nearly globular one, but what do I know? They can make themselves shorter or longer as they please. The second one is probably elongate, but #'s 3 and 4 seem less so. But don't they look alike? In both the shutter speed was set to 1/1600 second.
The difference is that in the first one, the flash was on compulsory, strobe. In the second one, no flash was used.
One last shot. Tripper has invaded Big Bunny's cage and is trying to find a nice spot to plop herself.
It's a short blog again, but a hair longer. Spring is coming soon! Does everyone know that February 2 is the day when the average low temperature hits its bottom and starts to get warmer? So by the time I get out another blog it will truly be pre-spring.
Love, Martha
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