Critter Play

 
Just a few pictures of critter evidence from Thursday. Fun. Mostly what I saw was squirrel tracks. Everywhere. But I thought this one was funny, with little red squirrel tracks in a boot print. There were also a lot of big ones, probably fox squirrels, and the gray squirrels in between.



Loved finding nice opossum tracks- see the splayed out thumb?



Found one cast-off deer antler.



When I picked it up, the depression was full of snow fleas!





But the cutest was a member of the sloth hiking team (We will get there when we get there) taking a break, lying down under the snow.



In other news: I wrote my column in the morning, and worked on some filing in the afternoon. Oh, and I made hot biscuits. Just got a hankerin'

See Meet the Snow Flea

Meet the Snow Flea

 
If you live in the northern United States, this is a very common bug, but I haven't talked about it before. It's commonly called a snow flea, but it's not a flea. It's not an insect either, but it is a cousin of the insects. It's an arthropod like shrimp, crabs, scorpions, centipedes, spiders, insects, etc. Arthropod just means "jointed foot."

Did you notice in the pictures yesterday that there were black specks beside the feathers, on the snow? Those little guys are the snow fleas! Scientific name Hypogastrura nivicola.

I've made a short Shark Show you may enjoy.

	Other arthropods See Horseshoe Crab See Wolf Spider
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Somebody Went to the Ocean, and All...

... I got was to see a Horseshoe Crab shell. But that's OK. I'd never seen one in real life before.



I didn't realize how big they are! They also aren't really crabs. They are arthropods, closely related to spiders, but even more closely related to the extinct trilobites. This isn't my picture (it came from Miss Pegasus), but it shows what's under the shell of a live one.

There sure isn't much agreement on line about how many pairs of legs they have, but I think the correct answer is 6 pairs. They use the small ones for eating, the next set for mating, and the other 4 sets for walking.



The tail is very important because they can use it to turn over if they get flipped. So a horseshoe crab with a broken tail could be in serious trouble.

I hope I get to see one in real life sometime! I bet lots of you have seen them. They are found around the world, at the ocean.

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Small Brown Friends

Ellen and I sure picked the good day to play last week. It has rained all this week. A low pressure is parked over Michigan, and we are WET. With some help from BugGuide.net, I can tell you what these small creatures are.

OK, we'll do the one some of you may not like so much first. This is an unidentified species of Wolf Spider in the genus Arctosa. This one was scrambling around on the Lake Michigan beach.



I was surprised that Bug Guide IDed it as a wolf spider, because I thought they were darker, with stripes, and some are. It's just that this is a different one. Clearly, I need to learn more about what makes a wolf spider: hairy, 8 eyes in a particular arrangement, long legs, note the shape of the cephalothorax and abdomen.

Wolf spiders can bite, but they usually won't unless they are provoked. Bites can be painful, but usually not serious unless someone is allergic.

Next up is someone much more cute. As I'm sure you will also recognize, this looks like a black lady bug, or lady beetle.



Well, it turns out that is basically correct. The real surprise is that this is a Fifteen-spotted Lady Beetle, Anatis labiculata. So, where are the spots, you ask? Unlike humans, who gain spots as they age, this beetle loses its spots. When they are young, they are gray with dark spots. This one is really old, with a solid purple-black case. Aren't the legs cute?

Now I'm just going to have to look for a young one!