Winter Resorts: an aphid can get by fairly well during the winter if it is indoors with houseplants.

Yes, it’s been a long winter for much of North America. For the New England bug photographer, it’s been quite long, I can assure you. A few bugs turn up here and again. I saw one of the most beautifully decorated Phidippus audax jumping spiders scouting the window frames in my house this past January (and I will eventually post photos of it!), but that was the only highlight, really. Sure there was a couple nondescript, little house spiders and an intriguing but erratic tiny rove beetle in the bathroom one day. However, it’s just not quite as…inspiring as an artist might hope for. My results reflect this lack of inspiration, both in quality and quantity; my camera like the bugs was dormant for the most part this past season. The aphid subject above is exhibit A in this regard. You’d think one would be happy to have anything with six legs to shoot, but “outside” of the outdoors things are heavier; scenes are synthetic; and a pest is almost too plain to bother with. I was unable to muster much enthusiasm, and consequently very few shots, for these dark little bugs infesting some of the house plants. I did manage this one decent shot before calling it quits on the aphids, but that was pretty much the not so long and very short of it.

Fortunately, old man winter can’t last forever, even if he’s giving a good run at it. Time for the bugs and the bug photographers to rev up. I can’t wait for the snow white to fade to spring green, to turn the tables and do some pestering of my own.