Winter entomology

Proper winter arrived earlier this week as snow blizzards hit the country.

Winter landscape

So what is an entomologist to do? Sit inside with a cuppa, sorting images and identifying alcohol soaked specimens whilst longing for the summer. I thought so, but then a fellow colleague mentioned crawling through the snow hunting for bugs. Seriously.
He told tales of spiders, true bugs and all sorts of small things.

Some get chilled down and drop to the snow where they are easily spotted (relatively) on the plain white background.

Some bugs (such as Boreus hyemalis the Snow (Scorpion)Fly / Snowspringer) move around primarily during periods with snow, and are also easily spotted. The Snow fly (B.hyemalis) migrate across smooth surfaces of snow by jumping, looking for suitable places to lay eggs.

I went out to give it a try. 20 minutes beneath a few birches and I had collected 15 true bugs. They where all Birch Catkin Bugs (Kleidocerys resedae). Heres a few images of them.

A lone adult Birch Catkin Bug (Kleidocerys resedae) in the snow

Two collected K. resedae adults in a petri dish.

There was also several K.resedae nymphs in the snow.

There was also a couple of (really small) spiders and a single fly. I am definitely going to give this a decent try the next few days, and hopefully find a fully functioning live Snow fly (B.hyemalis)!