I wanted to show you something I noticed the other morning when I went out to check my moth light. When I was trying to photograph a moth on one of the beams of our covered deck, I noticed something else had been disturbed. If you follow along with my blog and social media posts, you may have seen photos and video I posted on YouTube https://youtu.be/vUlu32SyvZg?si=Z8TrNSzt29tJidkd back in December of 2025. This video features a female Cross Orb Weaver (Araneus diadematus) constructing her egg sack. It’s pretty cool, so watch it if you get a chance.
Araneus diadematus egg sack construction, San Juan Island, WA Araneus diadematus with egg sack – December 12 2025
The female spider stayed on her egg sack, guarding it and probably resting from all of her hard work. She was there for more than a week. Maybe two. I noticed one morning after the temperatures had become quite cold, that she was no longer in her spot. Perhaps she dropped to the deck floor in the night and was picked up by one of our resident Juncos for breakfast. I had grown quite fond of watching her, so it was sad to find her missing. Yes, I was also a fan of Charlotte so long ago.
I have been keeping an eye on MY Charlotte’s incubating little ones since then, and was surprised to see that some of the beautifully woven fibers of her baby bassinet had been plucked away.
It’s not a huge surprise. This beautiful silk is likely the perfect lining for a tiny hummingbird nest. My hunch is one of our little Anna’s hummingbirds plucked from the spider sac to cushion her own eggs.
I don’t know if the spiderlings developing in the remains of this egg sack are still viable, but I will continue to watch and film them if I see activity.
Fun facts for you ~ Hummingbirds and other birds feed their nestlings spiders because they contain the amino acid, taurine, essential for brain development. Hummingbirds’ diets are actually comprised of approximately 80% insects and spiders. Hummingbirds (especially growing babies) need sources of protein in their diet. Adults rely on sugar water (and plant nectar, and even aphid honeydew) as sources of carbohydrates.
The best way to support hummingbirds and other wildlife in your area is to get rid of your lawn. Leave the leaves in the fall and don’t go overboard cleaning things up in Spring. Leave the moths, flies, native bees, and other insects that are still sleeping, undisturbed. Grow native plants that produce nectar and feed insects, and minimize or eliminate any use of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides around your home. The world will be better for it. 🌎 🕷️🪲🐞🍃
This post is for the folks living on San Juan Island and in San Juan County, but also for the wider PNW area. After seeing multiple posts this morning about Carpenter Ants showing up, and I personally have seen three or four Carpenter Ants in our house this past week (Camponotus vicinus), I felt compelled to do a write-up that can be shared more easily into social media groups and read by those who aren’t on social media sites.
It is the time of year when you may see activity in your own home. Don’t freak out. Their appearance does not mean you have an infestation, but if you see one crawling around on the floor or wall, you should use this as a sign to check around your home carefully. Annual inspections are an important part of caring for your home and investment.
Once upon a time, we found issues in our own home. There were carpenter ants in the wood trim around our skylight. Our roof had been leaking for some time and that rotted the wood. I told my husband one morning that I could HEAR them chewing. I could. They were up there munching away. He got a ladder, removed the wood trim, and then danced like he was at a rave. I’m surprised, and thankful, he didn’t fall off the ladder. The entire colony dumped out onto his head. They were biting him and spraying him with formic acid. Fortunately, I had the shop vac handy. Once we vacuumed them up and he replaced the wood and fixed the roof leak, we have been ant-free (almost 10 years now).
Camponotus vicinus carpenter antCamponotus vicinus carpenter antCamponotus vicinus carpenter antCamponotus vicinus carpenter ant
In your home, I recommend inspecting for water leaks, repairing them, and replacing any rotten or damp wood. If you have trees or vegetation overhanging and touching your home, trim this back. Avoid leaving stacks of firewood near or against your home. Also, avoid mulching near your foundation. Fix any areas near your yard where water is not draining properly and seeps back towards your foundation . Keep the humidity low in your home, especially in basement areas. If you can’t do this yourself and you live in San Juan County, I do recommend calling Paul at San Juan Pest Control (360) 378-2941- who can check all the things I just recommended. In my experience, Paul has been careful about minimizing use of pesticides or baits. Please, please, do not go to the home store and pick your poisons out and apply them yourself. If you won’t consider any alternatives I’ve suggested here, at least get a professional to help you with this.
You might ask, “Why are you so against toxic baits and chemicals?” Well, aside from the dangers of using pesticides in your home for yourself and your pets, they are highly toxic to wildlife. These toxic chemicals or baits go through the food chain, impacting non-target species.
For instance, the diet of our beautiful Pileated Woodpecker species is comprised of 54-60% carpenter ants. They will be feeding nestlings soon, as will other bird species that utilize ants for food. Applying pesticides can impact these birds directly through the poisons going through the food chain or by removing their food source. We want to protect our structures, but also need the reminder to protect our avian neighbors. Just as you don’t want to go hungry and starve, neither do they.
Violet Green Tree Swallow with Camponotus modoc Carpenter Ant
I guess I should go a bit further here in my ecology connection. If we are feeding the birds, why do we need to worry about ants or other bugs in the first place? Bird seed and suet cakes, and even sugar water solution for hummingbirds, provides them with a supplementary food source when they need extra energy. Supplementing with feed can help birds before leaving, or after arriving from a long migration, after a winter season when food sources decline or are scarce or harder to access. Supplementing with feeders can also provide them with extra calories before they begin nesting, or if they are compromised in some other way.
Feeding birds, however, is primarily for our entertainment. We feed them because we appreciate nature and bird watching. Suet, seeds, and sugar water are not their main diet components though. Especially not for baby birds that need protein sources.
Birds need BUGS. Even hummingbirds feed their baby birds bugs. Spiders are a favorite because baby birds need taurine, an amino acid necessary for brain development. Spiders are a source of taurine.
All birds need essential minerals, amino acids, and vitamins that aren’t found in bird seed, suet, and sugars. They will visit sources of sap, nectar, and forage in tree stumps, standing dead snags, under rocks, in the soil, and all through the leaves and twigs of our trees. I’ve seen hummingbirds taking small insects and spiders from beneath the eaves of our home. The “environment,” or what little remains that has not been altered, degraded, or poisoned by humans, is literally the “grocery store” for wildlife. Wildlife, including birds and even other insects or spiders are nature’s best pest control. Let’s make sure we protect them and acknowledge their value in choosing how we live.
References and Further Reading ***noting here that Carpenter Ants also provide valuable pest control for species of insects that defoliate our fruit and forest trees! ***
Akre, R. D., L. D. Hansen, and E. A. Myhre. 1995. My house or yours? The biology of carpenter ants. Am. Entomol. Soc. 41:221–226.
Bull, E. L. 1987. Ecology of the pileated woodpecker in northeastern Oregon. Journal of Wildlife Management 51: 472–481.
Bull, E. L., R. C. Beckwith, and R. S. Holthausen. 1992a. Arthropod diet of pileated woodpeckers in northeastern Oregon. Northwestern Naturalist 73: 42–45.
Bull, E. L., C. G. Parks, and T. R. Torgersen. 1997. Trees and logs important to wildlife in the Interior Columbia River Basin. U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report PNW-GTR-391, Portland, Oregon, USA.
Campbell, R.W., and T.R.Torgersen.1982. Some effects of predaceous ants on western spruce budworm pupae in north central Washington. Environ. Entomol. 11:111-114.
Cruz, A., and D.W. Johnston. 1979. Occurrence and feeding ecology of the common flicker on Grand Cayman Island. Condor 81:370-375.
Furniss, R. L., and V. M. Carolin. 1977. Western forest insects. U.S. Forest Service Miscellaneous Publication number 1339, Washington, D.C., USA.
Hansen, L. D., and R. D. Akre. 1985. Biology of carpenter ants in Washington State (Hymenoptera:Formicidae:Camponotus). Melanderia. Volume 43. Washington State Entomological Society, Pullman, Washington, USA.
Hansen, L. D., and A. L. Antonelli. 2005. Carpenter ants: their biology and control. Washington State University Extension Bulletin 0818, Pullman, Washington, USA.
Hansen, L. D., and J. H. Klotz. 2005. Carpenter Ants of the United States and Canada. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Mankowski, M. 2001. Biology of the Carpenter Ants Camponotus vicinus (Mayr) and Camponotus modoc(Wheeler) in Western Oregon. Ph.D. dissertation, Oregon State University, Corvallis.
Mannan, R. W. 1984. Summer area requirements of pileated woodpeckers in western Oregon. Wildlife Society Bulletin 12: 265–268.
Ramsay, S.L. and Houston, D.C. (2003), Amino acid composition of some woodland arthropods and its implications for breeding tits and other passerines. Ibis, 145: 227-232. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1474-919X.2003.00133.x
Torgersen, T. R., and E. L. Bull. 1995. Down logs as habitat for forest-dwelling ants—the primary prey of pileated woodpeckers in northeastern Oregon. Northwest Science 69: 294–303.
Torgersen, T.R., R. R. Mason, and H.G. Paul. 1983. Predation on pupae of Douglas-fir tussock moth, Orgyia pseudotsugata (McDunnough) (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae). Environ. Entomol. 12:1678-1682.
Aren’t we all? Hanging on for dear life? Whether it is financial, emotional, or health-related, it sure seems like folks in the world are facing a crisis of one sort or another. Some are facing outright catastrophic ones. We need a global re-set for the chaos. To calm my mind, I ponder bugs. How do you cope?
If you are just seeing my blog, it’s Fantasic Fly Friday. Flies are so varied and amazing. They literally fuel the world as we know it.
I photographed this one last night at my moth light. It was raining on San Juan Island, so there were more than a few bugs enjoying the refugia beneath our covered deck. Some nights it’s quite a party. A bug disco!
This is one of the more primitive flies in the family Trichoceridae (the Winter Gnats or Winter Crane Flies). Sometimes people call them hanging flies. I believe this one here is in the Genus Trichocera. However, I didn’t pluck my specimen off and take his or her life to determine that for certain under the microscope. I rather enjoy watching them alive because they all have quirky behaviors that are far more interesting to observe than counting wing veins on a dead bug.
The Trichoceridae are a family of Nematoceran flies grouped in the overarching infraorder Tipulomorpha (Crane Flies). There are approximately twenty-seven to thirty species of winter crane flies in the family Trichoceridae found in North America north of Mexico, depending on what source you use (Bugguide, 2021; Pratt, 2003). These are small to medium sized flies (wing up to 12mm), with a slender body and long, slender legs are distinguished from other families of crane flies by the presence of three ocelli (the primitive light detecting “eyes” found on the top of the head. Other identifying features include a V-shaped suture on the mesonotum that is incomplete in the middle, and long, hairlike 16-segmented antennae.
The larvae of Trichoceridae develop in moist or wet terrestrial biotopes. They can be found in decaying leaves, manure, fungi, stored roots/tubers, and rodent burrows (Bugguide, 2021). Adults are able to tolerate cool temperatures and sometimes, like I have seen, you may find them out walking on the surface in snow. Being active in winter, means there is little food available, but adults may feed on sap, or other carbohydrate sources. According to The Bug Lady (2015), they have been collected in molasses traps, and I have found them in our hummingbird feeder in winter when I take it down to change the sugar water and they are often on the sides of our seed and suet bird feeders as well. Perhaps taking nutrients in small amounts from the fruit in the bird feed mixes.
Winter Crane Fly in Snow, 2017 – San Juan Island, WA
Even though they are small (perhaps you have never even noticed them), these flies are significant in ecosystems, with the short-lived adults providing a winter protein source for birds and even bats. The larvae feed other organisms that go unseen in the winter (beetles, spiders, millipedes and such) that wake up hungry on warmer days. They are important decomposers, nutrient recyclers, and a wonderful bioindicator of ecosystem health. They do not bite, nor do they transmit disease.
Remember the behaviors I mentioned? Well, these flies dance like the world is ending. At least the males do. They can be find swarming on cool winter afternoons, bobbing up and down in what are known as ghosts (Burton-Hargreaves, 2026). Friendly ones! When I read that, it reminded me of a book by Robert Bright my mother read to me often as a child, Georgie and the Noisy Ghost. Just like the ghost in this childrens’ book, I find these little flies dancing about at my moth light to be delightful.
Winter Crane Flies may have a brief existence, but they make the most of it. We can too. Live in the moment. Read to your child. Be present and helpful. Check on your neighbor. Maybe Clang and Rattle a Bit about the state of our country to your representatives (in a polite email, of course). Stay connected, and hang on for the wild ride that is LIFE.
Pratt, Harry D. (2003). The winter crane flies of North America north of Mexico (Diptera: Trichoceridae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 105, 901–914. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/55628
This unusual looking critter is a Long horned beetle in the family Cerambycidae, sometimes referred to as the Thorn- Tailed Longhorn Beetle because of the spiny projections at the posterior end of its body. The species is Plectrura spinicauda. Etymology for this bug’s binomial nomenclature consists of the generic name, derived from a combination of plektron (Greek for instrument to strike/pick) or plekein (to weave/twist) with oura (Greek for tail), and the species epithet combines from Latin spina (spine/thorn) and cauda (tail), translating to “spiny tail.”
Plectrua spinicauda
They are native to North America, with a geographic distribution in Western N. America (Alaska-n CA). P. spinicauda is a flightless beetle species with cool wrap around eyes, and as the name suggests, thorny projections at the end of its abdomen. The larvae have been found to develop in Alder, Willow, and Maple. They are important as decomposers and nutrient recyclers.
Author’s note. It is quite common for people to state that wood boring beetles kill trees. This is not necessarily true at all. In fact, most trees that are attacked by beetles are already in a state of decline. Just like humans decline with age or become ill with health problems, so do other things. Nature’s way of handling diseased and dying trees is to send beetles in (all sorts of beetle species) to help with the decomposition process – to recycle waste products and release nutrients back into the environment for other life forms to utilize.
Spraying a tree with pesticides as a preventative from the course of nature only worsens the situation. If you step back to assess the situation, you might ask yourself why the tree is dying. Is it from drought, heat, competition from other nearby trees, did someone weed whack too close to the trunk and cut or scar the bark? Are you running your lawn mower over exposed roots? Is the tree a short-lived species or maybe just entering the sunset of its lifespan?
There are many various reasons for trees to decline and die. Don’t blame the beetles for doing their job. They don’t just clean up the mess, but they feed many other organisms with their own lives. Beetle larvae are wonderful food for woodpeckers and other birds. Birds are in decline. Do something! Care! Get a book at your local library about how to create habitat so you have diversity of life and a healthy ecosystem in your yard space.
Today I have a beautiful Fruit Fly (Genus Anastrepha) to show you. I found this specimen when visiting Tulum, Quintana Roo, MX in late January. The place we stay in Tulum has a swimming pool virtually no one ever uses. I love this place so much because I almost always have the pool entirely to myself. Everyone else is at the beach!
Anastrepha fruit fly
However, this particular pool is not maintained so well. More often than not, the filtration system isn’t turned on. I spend the first 15 minutes or so walking around in the pool to skim off all the bugs with a cup I bring from our room.
Unfortunately, my efforts to communicate, in broken Spanish, a request for a pool skimmer to the maintenance workers was a total failure. Probably they secretly referred to me as loco el bicho señora, or something like that. My Spanish is terrible. If you know me well though, finding bugs in the pool is literally one of the reasons I love staying at this place. I have my own vacay niche! Surveying for entomological diversity found in the pool.
There were more than a few bugs for me to “save,” that had landed on the water surface. Some, like this fly, had unfortunately already expired. I skimmed them all out, photographed them, then uploaded my observations onto iNaturalist. I even resuscitated a few that I thought were dead. Toilet paper or tissue paper “beds” work pretty well for drying them out in a pinch.
Fruit Fly (Anastrepha sp.)
I collected these photographs because I really appreciated the cool picture window patterns on the wings. This is one characteristic of fruit flies. This is also a female specimen as you can see from the longish posterior appendage, her oviscape. Last week, I tried to create a space away from social media to decompress, so I sketched her (to the best of my ability) and used my colored pencils to bring her to life. Probably I did not get all her bristles in the right places. On flies, bristles are diagnostically quite important. I’m not quite there with my artistic rendering, but it was a relaxing activity.
Fruit Fly (Anastrepha sp.)
In spite of their unique and beautiful wing patterns, fruit flies are often considered agricultural pests. Probably they wouldn’t be a pest except that we have these giant industrialized agricultural operations to feed more people than the planet should ever support, and probably, we artificially enable populations of various pests to explode because we are creating extra habitat for them. Fortunately, some targeted biocontrol and Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) has been effective enough to move producers away from utilizing harmful and unsustainable methods of chemical control, although I imagine some operations continue to apply pesticides.
This particular fruit fly is in the Genus Anastrepha. I haven’t really attempted going beyond genus level to identify this one to species. Anastrepha ludens, however, is a name that pops up often in literature from studies in Mexico and California. Anastrepha is a genus in the Family Tephritidae and I believe there are over 200 species of Anastrepha fruit flies in the Americas.
If you are interested in reading more about this genus, I would start off sending you to the 1963 study by Foote and Blanc, referenced below. I am currently waiting on a text I ordered from Abe Books on fruit flies, and will be doing additional reading once it arrives.
One interesting taxonomic tip I can leave you with: Tephritidae are true fruit flies. Those small flies that get into the bananas on your counter or into your rotting compost that many folks refer to as fruit flies aren’t fruit flies at all. They are vinegar or pomace flies, a completely different family called Drosophilidae.
Find out more when you follow me on Fantastic Fly Fridays!
References and Further Reading
Arias OR, Fariña NL, Lopes GN, Uramoto K, Zucchi RA. 2014. Fruit flies of the genus Anastrepha (Diptera: Tephritidae) from some localities of Paraguay: new records, checklist, and illustrated key. J Insect Sci. 1;14:224. doi: 10.1093/jisesa/ieu086. PMID: 25525098; PMCID: PMC5634125.
Greene C. T. 1934. . A revision of the genus Anastrepha based on a study of the wing and on the length of the ovipositor sheath. (Diptera: Tephritidae) . Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash . 36 : 127 – 179 .
My short post for the day brings you these interesting little critters that are technically not insects. Taxonomically, they are Arthopods (Phyla) in the Subphylum Hexapoda. If you’re into Etymology, “hex” = 6, and “pod” = foot or leg.
Within the Hexapod group, you will find 3 smaller groups of these wingless organisms: Protura, Diplura, and Collembola. These are Collembolans, the springtails. This particular group of Springtails is in the family Entomobryidae, and I believe most of the species you see here are Entomobrya clitellaria forma albocincta, a name revision suggested per Frans Janssens as found on Bugguide.net https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/272565 There is one Globular Springtail (Ptenothrix beta) that shows up at about 00:43 and the large Slender Springtail showing up about 2:44 is a different species of Entomobrya (Entomobrya triangularis).
I didn’t really want to deep dive much into taxonomy though. Mostly, I wanted you to enjoy watching them as I did. I suspect they are all together here in this varied group to share the food resource, which looks like bird poo to me.
If you watch the video, I think you’ll see the group isn’t always a Hexapod of Hexapods either. At some points, there is a Quartet of Hexapods and at others, you’ll see an Octad of Hexapods. They are quite cute when they thump their antennae in an attempt to move their dining partners enough to edge up to the buffet.
For the past few years, I have observed one of our native shrubs to see what pollinators are visiting. Calscape has recorded Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor) as a host plant to approximately 14 species of Lepidoptera. Yet, I have actually never seen a single pollinator visiting the cascades of snowy white, delicate blossoms. I’ve also heard from a handful of local folks on San Juan Island. They say Ocean Spray is “invasive” and should be brush-hogged. According to them, it’s a “fire hazard.” This view is disturbing to me. I felt it important to find concrete evidence of this native plant’s value in our ecosystem.
Bombus flavidus ssp. flavidus
Well, the other evening, I documented the first pollinator I’ve ever seen visiting these blossoms. There is a gorgeous Ocean Spray out our bathroom window. I noticed movement in the upper portions of the shrub. It wasn’t windy, so something else was causing the movement. I went out later, around 9:00 pm, to investigate the cause of the disturbances. Can you guess what I found? Bumble bees!
Bombus flavidus ssp. flavidus
I also experienced annoyance from another buzzer. A Cattail mosquito, Coquillettidia perturbans (say co-KEE-luh-tih-dee-uh PURR-tuh-binz) promptly discovered my bare arm. It slipped its hypodermic proboscis into my epidermis with effortless precision, a precision superior to any medical professional’s injection. I didn’t feel it at all.
Cattail mosquito (Coquillettidia perturbans)
I would describe the bites from these mosquitoes as a very mild annoyance. I didn’t have any after-reaction at all. It was certainly not anything like the bites from some of the other insects I’ve experienced here, especially not thrips. I’m definitely not a thrips fan! You can read about thrips here in case you’re interested. https://buggingyoufromsanjuanisland.com/2021/06/29/public-health-alert-and-some-free-advice/
Getting back to the other buzz in the Ocean Spray. The buzz I was so happy to discover is the bumble bee (Bombus flavidus ssp. flavidus). I didn’t make the identification to subspecies on my own. That was with the help of a fellow named John Ascher on iNaturalist. If you’re curious about his work, you can learn more here: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/podcast/pollination-podcast/137-john-ascher-problem-measuring-bee-decline
Bombus flavidus ssp. flavidus
Bombus flavidus is a species of Cuckoo Bumble Bee, and one of the most widespread species in the world. These bees don’t have a worker cast like other species of bumble bees. They find nests of other bumble bees to occupy and invade these nests. The host bumble bee workers then rear the offspring of the cuckoo bumble bee along with their own offspring.
I hope my discovery leaves you curious about what pollinators visit Ocean Spray in your yard. My next goal is to make nighttime observations. I want to see what is visiting the flowers while they are still in bloom. I suspect they have nocturnal pollinators. If you find any, I hope you’ll report your findings with me. 🙂
To see more of San Juan Island’s invertebrates, please join and follow me on iNaturalist – https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&user_id=cyndibrast&verifiable=any . If you have never used iNaturalist, try it out! I love it because it’s a way to connect with other entomologists. It also helps me organize my findings into appropriate categories for referencing when I want to look something up.
Also, please don’t go crazy with the brush hog. Nature loves messy. Humans cause fires. We can do much on that end to prevent them by changing our behaviors and being more careful. Scraping the earth bare and/or parking out your parcel to be “fire wise” is actually not kind to nature. We need to protect habitat for the wild things, not eradicate it. Even mosquitoes have a role in the food web.
It has taken a bit of time to finally sort out genus and species for this very cool Robber fly with beautiful caramel-brown mottled wings I spied the evening of June 6, 2025. It perched on a dried apple mint stem from last season, no doubt scouting the terrain to see what might be on the menu for dinner. Robber flies (Family Asilidae) are predatory. They catch other small invertebrates to eat, paralyzing them with special salivary digestive enzymes and then sucking up the liquified contents through the proboscis (Cannings, 2013).
Getting to an identification beyond Genus for this one has been incredibly frustrating, and complicating the process is the limitation of the key I was using (Wilcox, 1946), which primarily describes male specimens.
Robert Cannings has studied the Asilidae for many years in British Columbia and states this genus “sorely requires systematic attention.” I finally just gave up and reached out to Rob for help. He wrote me and said, “I’m pretty sure this is Nicocles canadensis. It’s a female, and some females are difficult, even when under a scope, because the Wilcox key, which is the best we have for now, deals with them poorly and concentrates on males. Nicocles canadensis is the species in the genus most often seen on BC’s south coast and, I assume, in your area.”
This is the only Nicocles fly I’ve ever found on our property on San Juan. According to Rob’s 2014 publication (linked in the references below) in Canada, ” Nicocles canadensis is restricted to Garry oak savanna and adjacent dry woodland on southern Vancouver Island (Saanich is the type locality),” so I anticipate this may be similar for our neighboring area.
Check out the attached references if you are interested in learning more about Robber Flies in our region.
Cannings, R.A. 2013. Robber Flies (INSECTA: DIPTERA: ASILIDAE) Of The Montane Cordillera Ecozone.
Cannings, R.A. 1994. Robber Flies (Diptera: Asilidae) new to Canada, British Columbia, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories with notes on distribution and habitat. J. Entomol. Soc. British Columbia: 91: 19-26. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/213777
Cole, F. R. 1969. The Flies of Western North America. University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles.
I’m quite fascinated by the rapid colonization of the very dry soil in the strip where our internet fiber cable was installed this past spring. Because disturbed soils can be great for seeding native wildflowers, I threw out several packets of a Pacific Northwest seed blend to see what might grow and I’ve been checking often to see what is coming up. In spite of the very dry weather we are having, there are some lovely Bird’s-eye Gilia (Gilia tricolor) blooming now.
Bird’s-eye Gilia (Gilia tricolor)
I see some Farewell to Spring (Clarkia sp.) popping up too, though they have not bloomed yet. There are others I have yet to identify. It’s been so hot and dry, I’m hoping the lack of water doesn’t ruin my efforts at re-wilding this spot.
In spite of the dry, cracked earth, there are Andrena sp. mining bees already claiming this strip. There are little holes everywhere.
I also saw one quite unique hole surrounded with round dirt “pebbles,” that looked to have been arranged to mark the entrance.
As I leaned closer to inspect this architectural oddity, I saw something I would never have even noticed without the help of my macro lens. It was a colony of Globular springtails (Fasciosminthurus quinquefasciatus). There were easily about 8 or so. Can you spy the one on one of the “pebbles?”
I was able to get one or two in focus. These springtails are incredibly small – perhaps only 1mm, and recognizable by the 5 transverse bands (jailbird stripes) across the dorsal abdomen. This species is unique among springtails in that while most species require moist habitats to survive, F. quinquefasciatus thrives in arid environments with little to no vegetation in areas with southern or south western exposure.
If you follow closely in the video here, you might notice that the individual I was tracking either pooped or laid an egg on that piece of straw (between the 45 and 55 second mark. I will add some still shots clipped from the video as well.
Globular springtail (Fasciosminthurus quinquefasciatus)Globular springtail (Fasciosminthurus quinquefasciatus) leaves behind a small white objectGlobular springtails (Fasciosminthurus quinquefasciatus)
A personal note ~ While our daily lives are often complicated with work and family obligations, as well as anxieties many of us have about climate change and political uncertainties, taking time to notice the natural world around, even in seemingly uninhabitable habitats can bring a bit of hope. There is life around us. We just might have to sit on the ground and get dirty to see it.
Thank you for reading and thank you for caring about nature.
I may have used this title before, so I’ll have to double check, and perhaps since I get this query frequently I will go back and edit with a numerical system or something like that.
So in this video, I am receiving a bite from 1) a mosquito? 2) a tick? or 3) a thrips? or 4) a bug?
If you chose option 4, a bug, you are correct. Indeed it is a bug, but not just any kind of bug. It is a bug in that it falls into the insect order Hemiptera (the true bugs). This “bug” is a species named Campyloneura virgula, a type of plant bug in the family Miridae.
It’s not the first time one has bitten me either, though most of my reactive bites on San Juan Island have been from thrips in the summertime when it is super dry and they are looking for moisture. I react badly to thrips bites. My husband says they are so small you can’t even see them. I think he really believes I am imagining them, but hey, I’m the entomologist in our family, right?
They’re not imaginary.
Neither is this biter. You can see the action on my ankle for yourself.
Then read the reference material and watch out for ankle biters in your yard.
Bugging You From San Juan Island 