If you walk along Jackson Creek in the coming days, you may see a unique little insect crawling along the surface of the snow. These are winter stoneflies. This time of year, the emerge from the bottom of creeks and rivers where they have lived the first year of their life. Although they have wings, they choose instead to crawl along the surface of the ground in search of a mate.
To keep from freezing while under the water, they stay in pockets of air under the ice that only reach about 0°C and promote supercooling in their cellular structure. This allows their bodies to reach temperatures several degrees colder than 0°C before freezing. They also produce some anti-freeze compounds when they are adults and ready to emerge.
In the coming days and weeks, be sure to check out this cool creature along the banks of Jackson Creek.
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