Find a secluded little place in the sun most
any warmish day in winter, and you'll see thousands upon
thousands of tiny black specks. Look closer.
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VIKI MATHER |
Even closer than that. Every one of those
tiny black dots is moving. These are snowfleas!
Also called springtails, these little
critters get around by releasing two little "tails'" that hook
beneath their bodies. They can jump as far as 10 centimetres.
This is no mean feat for a bug that is just a millimetre or two
to begin with.
Springtails live by the thousands per square
metre in the forest. They eat decaying leaves, pollen,
bacteria, and all sorts of other microscopic detritus on the
ground.
My reference book suggests they withstand
temperatures down to -22 C, and can live for up to three
years.
I find this quite amazing, given that many
little insect type things seem to live for only a season.
You have to wonder just what they are doing
out there, on top of the snow in the middle of winter. Are they
just getting out to see the sun, as we all are inclined to do
in these mid-days of winter? I wonder how they know the
temperature on top is hovering around zero when they spend most
of their days under the two feet of snow.
Maybe it is the brilliance of the sun luring
them to the surface, and as they approach the top, they can
feel if it is warmer up there, or down below.
Predators are few and far between at this
time of year, so it is a great time to get out to mingle. One
theory is they are out looking for mates.
Although that may be an exaggeration.
Springtails don't mate in the conventional sense. The males
wrap up their sperm in little packets that the females pick up
and deposit in the appropriate place. She will eventually lay
the eggs back down under the snow. They will hatch a few weeks
later, after the snow has melted. So, could their appearance
this early in the year indicate that spring is near? I hope not
too near.
Step outside for a few minutes and have a
look at the snow. Stare at it for a minute or two, looking for
specks of black slightly larger than the dot on
this letter i. If it is a snowflea, it will
hop.
Mating season or not, the springtails always
appear on top of the snow when days are warm. By the end of
March, when the days are much warmer, there will be ever more
of these tiny creatures appearing on top of the snow. Their
little black bodies soaking up the sun, I am sure they play an
important part in the final melting of the snows.
Viki Mather lives by a lake near Sudbury.
