📜 EwA Week Highlights: Winter Fireflies and Spring Springtails

[Mike McGlathery]

EwA Highlights April 20, 2025 Hello everyone,  Thanks for reading the April 20th EwA highlights. It's a beautiful, blustery spring day out there! 📸 With arthropod activity beginning to pick up this time of year, our naturalists have been making some very small finds. Kay spotted these hypogasturid springtails (genus Hypogastura)  on Wednesday. I like the sense of scale you get from the lichen in this photo. EwA iNaturalist Record (© Kay Roth · Woburn, MA · Apr. 16, 2025)  Jennifer spotted this hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) in Somerville on Tuesday. Some hermit thrushes migrate south for the winter while some overwinter in the New England area, so this individual could be just returning or have been here all year.  EwA iNaturalist Record (© jennifer_clifford · Somerville, MA · Apr. 15, 2025)  The winter firefly (Ellychnia corrusca) was back as the most observed species in EwA’s biodiversity projects on iNat this week. At this point in the season, our naturalists have begun seeing actual mating pairs on their host trees, such as the one photographed here by Kristian. A pair of winter fireflies can stay mating in this position for over a day. EwA iNaturalist Record (© kdemary · Arlington, MA · Apr. 14, 2025)  📊 Thanks to everyone for your great biodiversity records this week, totaling 531 observations of 311 distinct species. If you’re curious about the records from this week that have been validated by the iNat community so far, you can find them » here. 🏆 Running tally: To date, we have recorded 229,443 observations of 12,430 distinct species! Check out our EwA umbrella project, see the details per site/observer, and more » here. 📅 EwA Upcoming Public Events Ewa Field Events » Check the EwA Spring [ Event details and registration » ] Don’t miss some great opportunities to follow the rhythm of the season in our local habitats and in the local wildlife! Space is limited for all our field events. Wildlife ethics is important to us and we seek to avoid putting the pressure on natural habitats which large gatherings unavoidably do. We are asking our audience to register-and-commit (or cancel when you know you can’t come) to avoid no-shows. EwA Fieldwork (and Resources) It’s a great time to join our monitoring programs. Check EwA’s Volunteer Program Calendar 📅  to know when things happen. And if a session is of interest to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to get the rendezvous location. 📅 EwA Sites Map | 🌱 Site Protocols and Guides · Field Rosters · Field Notes » All here! | ℹ️ More about EwA’s Citizen Science Program » Here ❓ Do you have any questions? Don’t be shy. Just email me or reply to this thread.  That’s all for this week—hope you have a good one! -Mike