#snow fly

[onenicebugperday]

are there any bugs that can survive in cold climates?

There are many, many bugs that can survive in cold climates! Too many to name. Most bugs in colder climates survive by finding some place to hunker down for the winter, either in their adult, larval, or pupal form. Woolly bears, for example, spend the winter as caterpillars. Lots of other moths including luna moths spend winter in their pupal cocoon and emerge in sping. Lots of queen bees and wasps hibernate in the winter and start a colony in spring.

Other bugs survive via adaptations that make it possible for them to stay active even in freezing conditions. This includes snow flies, which are a type of flightless crane fly. They have glycerol in their hemolymph (bug blood) that keeps them from freezing. Here’s a snow fly:

Photo by terolinjama

There’s also a family of bugs called ice crawlers (Grylloblatidae) that live on mountain tops and glaciers, although they prefer temperatures just above freezing because their body will freeze otherwise. They avoid freezing by hanging out underneath the snow near the soil and leaf litter where it’s warmer. Here’s one to admire:

Photo by floydehayes

There are even bugs on Antarctica, btw! Only three that we know of, if I recall correctly, including the native Antarctic midge:

Photo by stu_crawford

Interesting to note that all of these bugs are flightless!

[bowelfly]

scientific illustration of a snow fly (Tipulidae: Chionea spp), a genus of wingless crane flies that live on the snow on mountainsides. as adults they don't eat anything besides slurpees snowmelt water, and have a bad habit of losing their limbs to the ice but don't generally seem to care. they also often harbor non-parasitic nematodes around their necks

[animalids]

Snow fly (Chionea sp.)

Photo by trasroid

[onenicebugperday]

@aggressively-crying submitted: Unsure of what this dude is but found in northern Vermont. Dead of winter in the snow and he's still chugging along. Its been snowing for weeks up here and he's somehow still alive. Godspeed, little dude.

It's a snow fly! Which is a type of wingless crane fly. It's normal for them to be out during winter. They have glycerol in their hemolymph to keep them from freezing :)

[onenicebugperday]

It's winter where I live, and there no bug friends, except the occasional fly indoors. Are there bugs that can hang out in the snow or in colder climates? Thanks!

Yes, actually! It depends on where you live obviously. But there are snow scorpionflies, snow flies (which are related to crane flies), winter stoneflies, snowfleas (a type of springtail), and ice bugs/ice crawlers, a type of insect in the family Grylloblattidae, just to name a few!

Most scorpionflies aren’t adapted to living in cold whether, but the family Boreidae is! Here’s a snow scorpionfly:

Boreus brumalis by berkshirenaturalist

Snow fly, genus Chionea:

Photo by erikamitchell

Canadian willowfly (one type of winter stonefly), Oemopteryx glacialis:

Photo by e-aus-kanada

Snowfleas, Hypogastrura nivicola:

Photo by jimtietz

Ice crawler, Genus Grylloblatta:

Photo by nrudzik

[onenicebugperday]

@yourlocalorchid submitted: Snow scorpionfly! (believe it's Boreus brumalis, northern MI) Love to see them at the break of spring, they hang around and eat moss

This looks like a snow fly to me rather than a snow scorpionfly! Snow flies are a type of wingless crane fly in the genus Chionea. They look super similar to snow scorpionflies, except snow flies have very short antennae and small mouthparts compared to snow scorpionflies.

Snow scorpionflies, specifically the mid-winter Boreus, Boreus brumalis, Mecoptera:

Photos by crx2aj3 and cadesbrocco

Your friend is still very cute though! Thank you for sharing :))

[cricketchirp]

Giving Thanks for the Pileated Woodpecker

While most critters in the woods make their presence known only by signs left behind, there is at least one who is bold and loud and ever present in my neck of the woods. It often begins the day with a salute of drumming on a hollow snag to mark its territory just after the sun rises, and then I hear it or see it fly about our yard and woods and across the field beyond the stonewall throughout…

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