Tiny Dancers

Resembling mini Macy’s Day Parade balloons and boasting the ability to enter a state similar to suspended animation, water bears prove that even the smallest critters deserve our attention and inspire our curiosity. In this issue, writer, naturalist, and water bear fanatic Brett Ortler profiles these fascinating aquatic microorganisms, known in the scientific world as tardigrades.

“I have a strong interest in—some might say an obsession for—small living things,” writes Ortler. “I spend my springs, summers, and falls outside, often looking for insects and other invertebrates and photographing any that I can find.”

Ortler’s passion for tiny creatures inspired me to dig into MCV’s archives, where I discovered a trove of stories about microorganisms and small macroorganisms. In his 2008 article on vernal ponds, esteemed phenologist Larry Weber wrote about freshwater crustaceans known as fairy shrimp. “Swimming in the clear waters of vernal ponds are orange critters about 1 inch long,” wrote Weber. “Fairy shrimp take their name from the way they suddenly appear, like magic, each spring.” Magical indeed!

Elsewhere in our back issues, I reacquainted myself with the headwaters chilostigman caddisfly, an elusive moth-like insect that is remarkably active in winter thanks to a chemical in its blood that acts as a sort of antifreeze.

“This enigmatic insect was first discovered in Itasca State Park in 1974, and would continue to be known from this sole location—worldwide—for the next 31 years,” wrote DNR zoologist Kyle Johnson in a 2019 article. “During this period it was listed as endangered in Minnesota to protect the only known population. New discoveries in 2005 and 2011 led to a new listing as threatened. In February 2017, the Minnesota Biological Survey found the species in three more locations in far northwestern Minnesota.” Today, scientists continue to study this caddisfly to learn more about its habitat and distribution.

“As a rule, microscopic critters don’t get a lot of attention,” writes Brett Ortler in his water bears story. But thanks to Ortler and other MCV contributors, the magazine does its best to shine a very, very small spotlight on the state’s littlest organisms.