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Index of Subjects To: all From: John Sollows Date: Feb. 17/10 I haven't noriced any snow jumpers, but yesterday at our place on the Wyman Road, near Yarmouth, fine weather and 5 degrees, an insect flew by. Some sort of midge? This IS the banana belt, although with 30-odd cm. of snow down today, you would never know it! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Anne Mills" <ocotillo@ns.sympatico.ca> To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca> Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 8:43 PM Subject: Re: [NatureNS] snow fleas (probably Boreus, Mecoptera) > When I was teaching Terrestrial Diversity in the Biology Department at > Dal., I always had a sample of the wingless insects on display in the lab > for the students. Andrew identified them correctly as Collembola but I > will add here that they are from one of 5 groups (orders) of "wingless > insects" (subclass Apterygota) that we studied. The Collembola are the > springtails or snowfleas that one sees on pond surfaces or streams at this > time of the year. I used to see them often at the Hd. of St. Margaret's > Bay up in the woods either on the trail or at the edge of the stream > running down the hill. They come in various colours - black, rust, bright > yellow and blue! although I have not seen the latter two colours. If you > find a largish cluster of them on the snow put your ear to them and you'll > hear little click clicks as they jump. > > Anne Mills > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Joan Czapalay" <joancz@ns.sympatico.ca> > To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca> > Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 6:45 PM > Subject: Re: [NatureNS] snow fleas (probably Boreus, Mecoptera) > > >> We used to see them a lot around the shady side of the school in Port La >> Tour, Shel. Co.. I had someone from DRN identify them as "snow fleas" for >> our outdoor nature class, but don't remember the scientific name. Seems >> we always saw them on an unusually mild day in Feb/early March. Cheers, >> Joan >> >> Stephen Shaw wrote: >>> Has anyone into winter hiking come across these, snow fleas (Mecoptera = >>> scorpionflies)? >>> They are expected to be black or brown, about 3 mm long, flightless >>> (vestigial >>> wings), come out on to the snow surface in the day in winter, and can >>> jump. They have been photo'd from early December through mid February on >>> Bugguide.net, in places like New Hampshire and Ontario. The species >>> featured >>> on Bugguide are mostly Boreus brumalis and Boreus nivoriundus. >>> >>> A colleague from Cambridge, Malcolm Burrows, who visited here a couple >>> of years >>> ago to work on jumping mecahnisms in true bugs, is coming back again >>> later this >>> year. He is the expert on the mechanics of insect jumps and has just >>> asked me >>> if any species of Boreus is found here. Has anyone seen any jumping >>> critter >>> like this somewhere in N.S., and if so at what sort of date? >>> Thanks, >>> Steve >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >
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