snow spider update
February 26th, 2006
I spent part of today sorting recent photos. I had fallen a little behind on posting photos to my Snow Creatures gallery on Pbase. So, tonight, I added a couple of spiders photographed on Feb. 15, 2006 at approx. 14:45 hrs. I’ve posted the photo of one above. Another Wolf Spider - species unknown. However, aside from the spider, something of interest is the very tiny thing on the snow to the left of the photo. For a better view, click on the above photo to open a larger version. I’m not sure just what that small creature is. I didn’t notice it when takiing this photo — after all these spiders that I’ve been finding are very small.
I’m hoping to do up a couple of pages on this “snow creature” project sometime soon. However, in the meantime, a few notes on observations. Most snow surface invertebrate sightings have been when the air temperature is approx. -4C or warmer. With few exceptions, I don’t find much out and about before about 10 a.m. regardless of the temperature. Peak time for finding invertebrates out and about seems to be around 2 p.m. Spiders are much more commonly seen than any other invertebrate apart from the almost ever-present Springtails. Contrary to what might be expected, highest numbers of creatures are found on warm but overcast days, especially when the snow is quite wet — sometimes after a rain. When reviewing my spider photos, I find that most are males (large pedipalps). Largest percentage of small spiders (which are the majority of what I see) are what I call the “two-tone” spiders which have furry pedipalps. However, when a large spider is encountered, it’s almost always a Wolf Spider, although I have come across a couple of others. One insect which I’ve found on colder days than all other snow surface insects is the Wingless Snow Cranefly (Chionea) which seem tougher than everything else. I’ve found a couple moving around on quite frigid days when it was difficult for me to keep my gloves off long enough to photograph them. I think that’s about it for brief notes. If anyone has questions or comments about any of the snow creatures or the above observations, please feel free to post a response.
Chionea, Spiders
