{"id":43860,"date":"2025-01-02T09:11:20","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T14:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=43860"},"modified":"2025-01-28T10:43:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T15:43:42","slug":"native-animal-profile-cold-weather-loving-bugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2025\/01\/02\/native-animal-profile-cold-weather-loving-bugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Native Animal Profile: Cold Weather-Loving Bugs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo by John Mullican<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cPaying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open hearts.\u201d – Robin Wall Kimmerer<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

A walk outside in the winter months always feels strikingly different from the summer, not just in the temperatures and the way the natural world looks, but in the way it <\/span>sounds<\/span><\/i> too<\/span>.<\/span><\/i> Other than the swish of your winter coat, the occasional bird chirp, and the crunch of dry leaves or freshly fallen snow, winter in Maryland can be a pretty quiet environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This silence is owed at least in part to the absence of active insects. The buzzing of busy bees and hungry mosquitoes, chirping crickets and shouting cicadas can really cause quite a ruckus, but most of our summer singers seem to disappear in winter. <\/span><\/p>\n

Some familiar invertebrates take advantage of our climate-controlled houses, living with us year-round, like spiders, roaches, cave crickets, and house centipedes. Others \u2013 like the ladybugs and stink bugs that find refuge in our window casings and siding \u2013 prefer to cozy up just when they need us. Some bugs migrate, some hibernate, and a large number pass the cold season in <\/span>an egg<\/span><\/a>, larvae, or another immature form. A large number of Maryland\u2019s well-documented <\/span>aquatic macroinvertebrates<\/span><\/a> (animals with no backbone that you can see without a microscope) spend their winters in streams as larvae or nymphs. Many use unique adaptations like the production of a chemical similar to <\/span>antifreeze<\/span><\/a> in their bodies to survive winter conditions and happily live their lives in frigid waters. These winter swimmers are <\/span>sampled and used<\/span><\/a> by <\/span>Department of Natural Resources scientists<\/span> to assess the health of our waterways. One final category is one of the most specialized and interesting: those that somehow remain active in their adult forms, our cold weather-loving bugs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Investigating<\/a>

Investigating Stream Health – MBSS<\/p><\/div>\n

If you live near a freshwater stream, you are likely no stranger to the existence of very special kinds of insects called the winter <\/span>stoneflies<\/span><\/a>, sometimes named <\/span>snowflies <\/span>(order Plecoptera, families <\/span>Capniidae and Taeniopterygidae)<\/span><\/a>. Named for their tenacious clinging on to rocks in fast moving streams, these flattened, leggy insects spend their egg and nymph stages in water, using feathery gills to breathe and producing an antifreeze chemical to stay thawed. They then go through a series of molts until they emerge from the water as adults, leaving behind their crunchy shed skin (called exuviae), often attached to the sides of bridge structures or rocks along the stream’s edge. Winter stoneflies uniquely time this emergence with the cold, giving themselves the advantage of less competition and fewer chances of being eaten by predators in the months when most other creatures are groggy. They are also fairly weak flyers; this means they spend more time running on land, making it much easier for our human eyes to spot, especially in contrast to snow. They spend just enough time in their adult form to <\/span>find mates<\/span><\/a>, lay eggs, and start the cycle over again. Not to be confused with <\/span>midges<\/span><\/a>, a teeny-tiny, gnat-like member of the true fly (Diptera) order that sometimes hatches on warm winter days, stoneflies are regarded as a very welcome mid-winter snack by our local freshwater fish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Insects like snowflies aren\u2019t the only ones taking advantage of winter\u2019s peace. They have good company in a very little known and fascinating group of invertebrates named snow fleas, part of the group of invertebrates called springtails or <\/span>Collembola<\/span><\/a>. Collembola don\u2019t technically qualify as true insects, nor are they fleas – but they do have six legs and a tail-like structure that enables them to launch themselves vast distances. They are rarely noticed, but extremely common and live basically everywhere, including highly urban environments like <\/span>Baltimore City<\/span><\/a>. Most of them hang out in soil, leaf litter, and moist vegetation; they play a vital role in breaking down organic matter, munching on dead things as busy decomposers. Some species are adapted to aquatic life, frequently found near tidal areas and shorelines. Being so tiny and covered in a hydrophobic (water-repelling) outer layer, even land-dwelling species can be found in water, floating on the surface film<\/a>; many terrarium pet owners can attest to this, as springtails are specifically bred and kept in \u201cbioactive\u201d captive reptile homes to aid in health and waste breakdown. Some of them could even be described as cute – take <\/span>Symphypleona<\/span><\/a> for example, globular springtails, which are very reminiscent of an animated character.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n