Snow fly citizen science project:WE NEED YOUR HELP

My lab at UW is looking for skiers to help us out with a project to collect and study a fascinating group of snow-loving insects found in alpine zones across the Pacific Northwest. While ski touring, you may have noticed insects sprinting across the surface of the snow. These are likely Chionea, wingless crane flies that live exclusively in cold, mountainous environments. In Washington, we typically find them in exposed areas close to treeline, but they've been spotted up at 9000 feet on Rainier and at temperatures below -10 °C in the North Cascades. Due to the fact that they live in extreme environments, snow flies have been very difficult to study. Our hope is that the skiing and mountaineering communities can help us collect snow flies, so we can study how they are physiologically adapted to live in such extreme environments.

Collecting snow flies is very simple: you just scoop them into a tube with a bit of snow (for hydration), stick them in your pack, and then either drop them off or mail them to us in Seattle. You can sign up and find more details about the collection procedure on our website snowflyproject.org or follow along on Twitter or Instagram (@snowflyproject)

No thanks Mr. Butthill

Cool, I always wondered about what they ate up there.

Cool, I always wondered about what they ate up there.

Apparently, the adults don't eat! depts.washington.edu/snowflyproject/snow-fly-basics/