The Beauty of Winter Bugs

By Keith Williams, Vice President of Engagement & Education

While most insects hunker down for the winter, many as eggs, a few can still be found out and about on warmer days. This twice-stabbed ladybug was seen crawling on a tulip poplar at Climbers Run Nature Center in early January. They are native and do a ton of good by controlling other insects who damage crops and trees.

It’s just a little lump of lichen, right? Until you see it crawl along the bark of a tulip poplar. Take a closer look, and you’ll see some formidable jaws (mandibles) hidden by a poof of lichen. This is a lichen bug – a kind of larval lacewing. The larvae cover themselves in lichen to become less obvious to their prey, which are mostly small insects like aphids. The larvae and adults are formidable predators on insects we consider pests.

Winter stoneflies spend most of their lives in the clean water of the Climbers Run stream (which is clean because the Lancaster Conservancy protects most of the headwaters in Steinman and Trout Run nature preserves just upstream). The adult stoneflies emerge in winter and have glycerol sugars and proteins in what we would call their “blood,” or hemolymph really in insects, that act as antifreeze. This allows the adults to function in the cold winter months when many other kinds of insects need to hunker down and ride out the cold. Stoneflies as a group are declining globally, but there is hope here at Climbers Run Nature Center that the winter stoneflies will continue on as long as we protect the land they depend on for clean water and breeding habitat.

It looks like a big mosquito, but it’s not. This is a winter cranefly (although it’s also not really a cranefly – that’s a different family of flies). These are common in cooler climates and in winter, so they are one of the bugs we can see when it’s cold out, active in the middle of winter on a 40-degree day. The adults don’t have mouthparts to feed. The larvae, though, do us a great service by eating decaying dead stuff. If you watch carefully, you may see what looks like a swarm of fairies rising and falling above damp spots in meadows. Their wings glisten in the sun and their jerky flight makes it hard to get a clear look. But if one lands, you might be able to make out the intricate wings that look like clear paned stained glass.

Oak treehoppers feed on oaks and come in a variety of forms, including a horned version. Males produce courtship calls humans can hear without amplification, but when amplified they sound like a low rumble. Research indicated mates are attracted to vibration, and I’m sure the low rumble produced by males vibrates the trees they depend on. This oak treehopper was found on a 40-degree day in December.

Flies are a common winter insect. They can be seen on most days when temperatures reach 40 degrees. This blue bottle fly was hanging out on the side of a tree at Climbers Run Nature Center. Blue bottle fly adults feed on sap. The females lay their eggs on dead animals. The eggs hatch into baby flies (maggots) who eat rotting flesh as they grow and metamorphose into adults. What a stinky place this world would be if it weren’t for flies and beetles (and vultures, but we are talking bugs here).

There’s beauty in these boxelder bugs, with their red eyes and the uniform V lines where their wings cross their abdomen, creating repeating patterns when they huddle en masse on colder days. Or maybe their beauty comes from the fact that most people can’t see their beauty, but rather focus on these animals as pests. They do no damage and don’t harm us, but they can congregate in our homes during winter, which to some qualifies them as pests. Maybe we need to learn to live with nature even in our homes. These critters are named for the trees they suck sap from – boxelders. They don’t harm the trees, or us, or our houses, and are food for animals like chipmunks and birds. They can be found outside all winter long.