🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨

Despite the season, there’s a surprising number of insects and related arthropods that can be found on the snow during the winter months. Snow Fleas, dark-colored springtails (Collembola), can sometimes be abundant enough to give large swaths of snow a sooty appearance. Snow fleas can be common on mild winter days.

Their population is very challenging to estimate, however someone has figured out that there are about 25,000 of these guys and gals in each square yard of soil.

Springtails are unique in that they have a stiff, hinged appendage that tucks under their abdomen and when they have to move a great distance they unlock this tail piece which flips down with such force that it flips the critter up, up and away for quite a distance.

They do not bite people or dogs or birds. They eat only vegetation and never live on another creature. Parasitic fleas and lice are also small, and 'way back when' somebody thought the little springtails looked suspiciously like a cat's flea. Not even closely related.