While out hiking on the snow on Sunrise Mountain with a friend who is a biologist, he pointed out some specks on the snow and labelled them snow scorpionflies. This piqued my interest.

It turns out that they are small dark glossy insects with long snouts. They mostly live in mosses, but come out for hops on the snow when the temperatures allow. They are closely related to fleas, but are so adapted to winter conditions that simply to pick it up with warm hands will kill it.

<a href=”https://kamloopstrails.net/asides/snow-scorpionflies/snow-scorpion/” rel=”attachment wp-att-4911″><img class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-4911″ title=”snow scorpion” src=”https://kamloopstrails.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/snow-scorpion.jpg” alt=”” width=”259″ height=”194″ /></a>