Mini Season: Awakening of Insects

We have entered the mini Season of Awakening of Insects.  This is the third mini season of the 72 season calendar. Each mini season contains three micro-seasons. Each micro-season lasts for about 5 days.   The micro-seasons contained within the season of Awakening of Insects are:

• Hibernating Creatures Open Their Doors (Mar 5 -Mar 9)
• The First Peach Blossoms (Mar 10 – Mar 14)
• Leaf insects turn into Butterflies (Mar 15 – Mar 19)

These seasons were established in 1685 by Japanese astronomer Shibuka Shunkai and are specific to Japan.  However, just because the calendar focuses on Japan doesn’t mean it isn’t applicable to others.  No matter where you live you can use these seasons as a starting point for your personal exploration into the world around you. 

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This season is all about animals emerging from hibernation. If you take the phrase Awakening of Insects as more of a creative expression than a literal one, this season actually refers to the emerging of a variety of animals including amphibians, migrating birds, and mammals. 

First Frogs of the Season 

Right now, with snow still covering the ground, the idea of insects awakening is highly unlikely.  However, I did a little bit of research and found that certain Vermont frogs have been known to come out of hibernation in early March.

Frogs in Winter

Frogs who live in colder climates, like northern New England, spend their winters in hibernation. Hibernation is basically the animal’s way of slowing down its metabolism so that it can survive the lean food months. While there are many animals that hibernate, they do not all hibernate in the same way.

Aquatic frogs, such as the American bullfrog, hibernate underwater.  Unlike turtles, who also hibernate, bullfrogs don’t dig into the mud during this time. Instead they lie on top of the mud or only partially bury themselves. Rick Emmer from the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo explains, “hibernating frogs would suffocate if they dug into the mud for an extended period of time.”⁽¹⁾  Because bullfrogs must be near oxygen-rich water to survive, being under the mud would limit their access to oxygen.

Terrestrial frogs, on the other hand, stay out of the water and hibernate on land.  Some frog species can burrow deep into the soil to get below the frost line. Whereas other terrestrial frog species, like the wood frog and the spring peepers, are not very good at digging so they look for cracks and crevices in logs and rocks to find shelter.  This strategy does not necessarily provide very reliable protection from the cold because the frogs are still above the frost line.  Therefore, these frogs have a high concentration of glucose around their organs that acts like antifreeze and protects them. When the temperatures in the frog’s hibernaculum, or hibernating space, moves above freezing the frog will thaw out and return to life.  

Emerging from Hibernation

To help determine the time of the year when these frogs emerge from hibernation, scientists use their songs as an indicator. In Vermont, the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas has collected years of data on the songs of its resident frogs. Their data indicates that the Spring Peepers and Wood Frogs emerged from hibernation as early as the beginning of March.

Spring Peeper

The spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) is one of Vermont’s smallest frogs.  They are about 1 to 1.5 inches long, light to dark brown in color, and have darker markings on the back that make an “X” pattern.  Their call is either a short ascending whistle or a series of ascending peeps.  They typically live in marshes, swamps, and wet lands with lots of vegetation. You can listen to the spring peepers call here. 

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Wood Frog

The Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) is about 1-2¾ inches long. This medium-sized frog is brown in color and has a black mask behind its eyes and black “backpack straps” in front of each shoulder.  Their call is more of a crackle than a croak or a whistle.  You can listen to the wood frog here.

Sometimes young wood frogs are confused with spring peepers.  One way to tell the two apart is that the wood frog has the dorsolateral ridges and the spring peeper does not. Dorsolateral ridges are the raised skin folds that run down the back of the frog.  

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Frog Haiku

When thinking about haiku and frogs, many people think about the Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) frog classic:

The old pond
A frog leaps in.
Sound of the water.
-Basho

However, since we are focusing on spring awakening and frog songs, I picked a few other other haiku that highlight this part of a frog’s life.

spring's first frog--
another drop falls
from the twig
-Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)

misty moon of spring -
water and sky are muddied
by the frogs
-Yosa Buson (1716-1784)

with a formal bow
he offers a song -
this frog
-Yamazaki Sookan (1465 - 1553)

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If you have a favorite haiku or poem about frogs in the spring, feel free to share in the comments below.

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Resources:

1. Rick Emmer: “How do frogs survive winter? Why don’t they freeze to death?;” Scientific American
2. “Frog Calling Times”; Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas
3. “Spring Peepers” (Pseudacris crucifer): Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas
4. “Wood Frogs” (Lithobates sylvaticus); Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas

Looking for something else to read? The Naturalist Weekly bookstore has several curated lists of books about poetry and haiku. We even have gift cards that can be used throughout the store. 

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