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Snow Creatures

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ant - front view
ant - front view		 Caterpillar - top view
Caterpillar - top view		 Caterpillar - side view
Caterpillar - side view		 spider-1-1.jpg
spider-1-1.jpg
spider-1-2.jpg
spider-1-2.jpg		 spider-2-2.jpg
spider-2-2.jpg		 Huntsman - Opiliones sp.
Huntsman - Opiliones sp.		 feathery antennae is a male midge - family Chironomidae
feathery antennae is a male midge - family Chironomidae
stone fly -- Allocapnia (?)
stone fly -- Allocapnia (?)
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Guest 16-Feb-2010 22:28
While walking in Sparta Glen,on a bright sunny day,through about 10 to 12 inches of snow,I saw many very small bugs.I couldn't determine what they were. They had very slim bodies, antenia, and maybe 6 legs. When I poked at them,they became very still. After a moment they became active again. I have never seen bugs in the snow before. I thought they may have blown out of the trees.
Bev Wigney01-Jan-2010 21:20
Neat that you were able to find so many creatures out and about on the snow. I suspect that they are out more often than most people realize. Once I found a few, I began watching for them more carefully and could almost always find at least 2 or 3 while out for my daily walks if the weather was up near freezing.
m0nk3ym1nd01-Jan-2010 18:20
On 12/30/09 towards sundown in Green Lake County, WI, USA my 11-year-old son remarked on a spider on the snow. We found about 6 of them crawling along, making about a meter in a half-hour. Temperature was just below freezing. We took one in to the house, where it became quite lively overnight but died the following day.

The next morning, 12/31/09, I counted 40 spiders and 12 insects in an approxiately 20X50 meter area, all dead; temperature was not higher than ~15F. Most of the spiders looked very like the photos of Pirata here. The previous week was well above freezing and rainy.

Thanks for posting this interesting collection! I doubted I was lucky enough to be the first to ever witness arthropods alive on ice, but had never heard of it before in fact or fiction.
Bev Wigney31-Dec-2009 15:59
Hi Bob,
I'm emailing you as well, but here's a reply to your question for any others who happen by this gallery:
I have seen many larvae on the snow under certain circumstances. Usually, it's when there is soft, wet snow and there has been some light rain and a breeze. I think that, with a breeze, some small creatures get blown out of the tree branches and end up down on the snow. However, I think there's more to this as I've seen caterpillars crawling along the trails and roadways in places like G. Howard Ferguson Forestry Center in Kemptville, or on the trails at my farm. They seemed to be attracted to areas where the snow was a bit packed down and wet from the rain. As I used to walk around my farm quite a bit, I got to know which days were best for finding spiders, firefly larvae, etc.. out and about -- and it is very specific weather.
Bob Arnebeck 30-Dec-2009 19:18
Hi Bev,

Just after a two inch snowfall on a golf course on Wellesley Island we saw two fairways or so peppered with larvae of various kinds from a half inch to over two inches long. Your photos are helping with identification. We often see hundreds of springtails at once, and other insects and larvae on the snow by ones and twos, but never by the dozens. We had rain in the days before, just above freezing. Have you often seen larvae out on the snow by the many dozens spread over a field of snow? Bob
roger 27-Jan-2009 17:19
Re the comments about Aleocharine Staphyline beetles. Hans: these are adult Staphylinid beetles. Look again and you will see they have elytra and must be adults not larvae, even of Staphs.
Bev Wigney04-Apr-2008 08:22
Hi Laurie - I've seen spanworms on the snow at my farm in Osgoode, and also at the Ferguson Forestry Center in Kemptville. I think that weather conditions have a lot to do with the presence of insects on the snow. Most of the times when I've found caterpillars and various other insects, there has been a period of very mild weather, often with some rain, during December or January. The temperature usually has to be between about -2C and 5C. -- bev
Laurie Graham 03-Apr-2008 17:02
Hi Bev

I am part of a group at Queen's University that studies antifreeze proteins in overwintering insects and other organisms. We were very interested to see your picture of the "spanworm" as we have also found these on occasion. We are currently looking for more but with very limited success. We are wondering if you have seen many at any particular location? We would greatly appreciate any information that you have about these inchworms. We were of the opinion that they might belong to the geometer moth group and that they might feed on some kind of hardwood.

Sincerely

Laurie Graham
Bev Wigney09-Mar-2008 17:36
Hi Dave -- Sorry not to post a reply sooner. I haven't been checking my galleries as much as usual lately. Can't say I know much more about that Caddisfly than I did back when I captioned this. Have you taken a look at Tom Murray's Caddisfly gallery?
http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/caddisflies_trichoptera
Dave 15-Feb-2008 20:03
Hi Bev,

I'm wondering if you ever got any closer to pinning down the identity of the ones you've captioned "Caddisfly?" I've seen something very similar out on the snow now - even shot a short movie.
Bev Wigney08-Feb-2008 23:10
Sorry, Chris. I don't know if it has a common name.
chris cooper 06-Feb-2008 13:48
Hi, this morning, I photographed a caterpillar that resembles your noctua pronumbra, but don't seem to be able to find anything about it except what you have here. Do you happen to know the common name for it?...
Vermont
Peggy C. 07-Dec-2007 00:30
Bev, Thanks so much for your gallery. You just answered a question from a six year old immigrant from Yemen here in San Francisco: "Do spiders like snow?"
Bev Wigney01-May-2007 10:45
Hello Hans, Thanks for leaving some notes about these larvae. I'll correct the captions.
hans 27-Apr-2007 13:55
the "Aleocharine staphylinid beetle larva" are soldier beetle larvae (Cantharidae) possibly Cantharis livida, these larvae are also called snow worms which indicates that they are very active during winter and foraging;
Bev Wigney12-Sep-2006 10:31
Johnny - I just photographed the Scorpionfly outdoors last winter, so I don't actually have the insect and didn't collect it (I don't actually collect any of the insects that you see in my photo galleries as I just shoot photos of everything I see). Snow Scopionflies are fairly common and easy to find in the winter.
Johnny CoColae 12-Sep-2006 03:25
I was wondering if you actually owned the snow scorpionfly and if you did would you sell it. It is very important and i would pay lots of money for it
John Hancock 07-Jan-2006 20:16
Hi A very interesting group of invertebrates. the two-toned spiders are mature males, the question is 'looking for females' above the snow or where these spiders disturbed.
I am doing some pit-fall traping under the snow which started last year with intersting results. JohnH.
Guest 26-Dec-2005 14:29
Cool gallery! DD
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