University of Wyoming junior Will Anderson spent the 2025 field season picking through debris-covered glaciers in Yellowstone National Park in a hunt for a tiny and elusive insect that prefers cold temperatures. 

Will Anderson takes a break from looking for ice crawlers in Yellowstone National Park. Anderson and other University of Wyoming students were returning from surveying a rock glacier near Mount Holmes. (James Sims)

For all the rocks he turned over, he found not a single Grylloblattodea, or ice crawler. One of the rarest orders of insects in the world, ice crawlers only have 35 described species.

Anderson, a biology major from Casper, ventured out again this summer with Audrey Lindsteadt, a third-year doctoral student researching rock glaciers. And on his first outing, while flipping over rocks near Antler Peak, he discovered two ice crawlers. A couple weeks later, he found a third near Grey Peak. That’s where he and Lindsteadt detoured to after a sow grizzly bear blocked their originally planned route. 

Ice crawlers are extremophiles, meaning they prefer cold habitats. The insect is only found in small pockets of northeastern Asia, Siberia and the western U.S. and Canada, Anderson said. Populations are usually restricted to small, disconnected areas in mountains and caves. 

Antler Peak in Yellowstone National Park
While flipping rocks on top of a large rock glacier near Antler Peak in northwest Yellowstone National Park, Will Anderson discovered two ice crawlers. (Audrey Lindsteadt)

Anderson identified the specimens he collected as Grylloblatta campodeiformis, which is the most widespread North American species, he said. He believes ice crawlers can help scientists better understand alpine ecosystems, he said in a University of Wyoming press release. 

“I am interested in this insect because there is so much not known about them, with their life history, habitat and distribution all not being fully understood,” he said. “I also am passionate about and interested in their alpine habitats, which are understudied.”

Anderson will present his results at the Entomological Society of America’s 74th annual meeting in November. 

Katie Klingsporn reports on outdoor recreation, public lands, education and general news for WyoFile. She’s been a journalist and editor covering the American West for 20 years. Her freelance work has...

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