Swamp

A cluster of two gorgeous maroon and lemon streaked skunk cabbage spathes emerging out of a mucky swamp that they melted.

If you're still struggling to find life in the half-melted tundra, have you tried checking your swamp? #spring #skunkcabbage

Spiders and springtails crawling all over the pores of violet-toothed polypores.

If you think it’s still too winter for life, perhaps you should check under your #FungiFriends.

A rotting log that had been encased in ice for months is beginning to melt and is crawling with springtails.

While you’re out checking your footprints, make sure to check your dead trees too. #springtails #arthropods #bugsky

Dead tree

Springtails

Foggy woods

Wetland

I love mud season

A dried snag with a carpet of the greenest moss you’ve ever witnessed after living through 30 years straight of snow and death.

#mossy

New phone? New phone. #naturesky #wintermelt

Robins are back!

(the ones that were acting like they were going to stay for the winter bolted)

Searched by followers: “how did this get 1000 followers”

1000 followers on tiktok apparently unlocks the ability to stalk your followers.

You all are mean. 😡

(For anyone paying attention, yes, this is a complete retake of the “is this your first time filming?” video slop from last week.)

“Supplemental content” for last night’s video. The junco wishes for you to learn its trill. #birders 🪶

Yessssssssss!

Please fake it if it turns out to be a pantry moth or something.

🤞🤞 Come'onnnnn clearwing! Is there honeysuckle nearby? (native or invasive, they don't discriminate)

Keep checking it to see if it starts changing color!

Don't know but rejoining team Sphingidae.

The tail, size, and insanely cute fuzzy face could pass for a clearwing but not really sure of any diagnostic criteria beyond that.

It looks like it wants to bolt soon-ish. Voting for snowberry clearwing, which could very well be an extremely wrong ID! 🐝

Thank you. Not as much as springtails though!

anal tip part of pupa

If you’re able to measure it and also get a clear close-up shot of the this part, that might help with an ID.

It's probably a larger species of owlet moth, though not sure which one.

How was it found? Under leaves? Dirt?

Looks like a Sphingidae, which yes, usually requires a little detective work. Was/Is there a plant that was in that spot last year?

Close-up of Pixie Cup lichen (Cladonia species) growing in a patch of moss on a woodland bank. Thin upright stalks rise from a leafy green base and end in small cup-shaped tips. The cups look like tiny goblets or trumpets standing above a miniature moss forest.

Had a different glimpse ot the minature forest when I saw this PIxie Cup (Cladonia species) while Iooking for liverworts..

And aren’t they cute?! Yes! So when you encounter these fantastic little not-fleas, rather than try to squish them over the poor name the human-folk have assigned them, you should stop and thank them for caring for the planet for over 400 million years.

They keep plants healthy by keeping them fertilized, dispersing the spores of mycorrhizal fungi, and controlling fungal diseases. ⬇️

Unless you happen to be dead, they want nothing to do with you or your blood. They clean up decaying matter. They keep the soil healthy by serving as a transportation system for soil microbes. ⬇️

These tiny animals are living fossils to be admired. They have been around for over 400 million years. The oldest fossil discovered so far dates back to the early Devonian, and its morphology was found to be strikingly similar to extant species. ⬇️

Springtails make up three lineages of hexapods, the relationships of which are so distant that they’re as closely related to each other as they are to insects. (Please don't interpret this as they must be like fleas then, you're missing the point, you don't get it.) ⬇️

They’re not fleas! They certainly don’t bite. Yes, they hop like fleas, but really, they have nothing to do with fleas. They have so little connection with fleas, that they’ve even been recently kicked out of insects! ⬇️

But you’ve been walking in snow not mud, haven’t you? Take a closer look! The specks of dirt are hopping around! They’ve come alive! Your boots have birthed life! OOooooOOooooOo!

They’re springtails! Most people call them snow fleas, which immediately evokes suspicion of these harmless creatures. ⬇️

And then look behind you and look inside the footprints you’ve made in the snow. You’ll notice your prints are deckled with specks of dirt. Must be from your filthy boots, right? ⬇️

Before the snow finishes melting, take a stroll in the woods and pause for a few minutes to listen to the birds singing, the rustling of the brown leaves remaining on the oaks, and the sound of water flowing once again and trickling off the trees as the ice thaws. ⬇️

Springtails!

Wait a sec. ⬇️
#hexapod #cuteanimals #bugsky

This migraine must be getting serious. Can't figure out how to upload a video to Tiktok. Ummm? #oldswampproblems