Solstice arthropods

One does not normally think of arthropods as appearing around the winter solstice. Yet, a few hang out in the house. Here are three seen this week.

This is a Cellar Spider, a female Pholcus phalangioides identified by arachnologist, Robb Bennett. This striking creature landed on my breakfast table. With its gangly legs it looked rather like a harvestman, but it clearly had to be a spider for it had descended on a silken thread. As the ancestors of this spider came from the subtropics, it cannot handle cold and so lives in homes where it ignores seasons and is active year round. This young lady was ushered into the laundry room, where she continues to hang out. 

Not active year round is this Western Yellow Jacket (Vespula pensylvanica). Most members of this species die with the first frost—but not the queen. She hides and overwinters, only to start a new colony in the spring. This one, apparently, mistook the warmth of my home for the arrival of spring and, rather drowsily, came out to look around.

And then there is everyone’s unfavourite: the Western Conifer Seed Bug (Leptoglossus occidentalis). Some locals call this a stink bug, but if they had ever encountered a real stink bug, they would realize that the miasma of this mild insect just does not measure up. It neither bites, stings nor eats through the winter; it just hangs out with you and hopes earnestly that you will not throw it out in the cold—lots of luck on that one, buddy.