Stained Glass Moth

This gorgeous little girl (males have big, unique “tufts” along their abdomens) is a stained-glass moth or assembly moth, Samea ecclesialis. These very common moths are notable for being abundant, flying all year round, and for being of “no reported economic importance” (does that phrase bother anyone else?). They range all over North and South…

Gray Wall Jumper

I glanced to my side while walking and happened to notice this minuscule little lady hanging out on the pier at Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World — so she might actually be a clever animatronic spider. Gray wall jumper spiders (Menemerus bivittatus) are actually human imports to Florida, but fortunately they’re one of the…

Common House Spider

My garage door looks pretty clean from a distance, but upon inspection it has a couple dozen, probably, of these little spiders keeping the local mosquito, gnat, and ant population down (thank you!) A ludicrous number of species are lumped under the name “common house spider”, but these particular individuals are comb-footed or cobweb spiders…

Rainbow Scarab Beetle

I never thought I’d find dung beetles exciting, but here we are. This gorgeous lady is a female rainbow scarab beetle, Phanaeus vindex, almost an inch long and with the cutest little bright yellow antennae! The ancient Egyptians worshiped scarab beetles. Looking at these colors, I can see why! Like all dung beetles, she looks…

Mabel Orchard Orb Weaver

Leucauge comes from Greek roots which mean “with a bright gleam”. The family is differentiated from other tetragnathid spiders by their oval bodies and the brilliant orange markings on the underside of the abdomen. Honestly, this may also be a Leucauge venusta. The two species are essentially identical unless you want to get extremely intimate…

Pink-striped Oakworm Moth

This fuzzy little pink-to-orange silk moth of the family Saturniidae is found across Canada and the US. The females are larger (maybe an inch and a half long); the males have large transparent spots on their wings. Both sexes have the little white spot on each wing. In Florida, these guys reproduce year round. Males…

Blue Dasher Dragonfly

Whoever named the blue dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis) clearly hadn’t seen a female; this female has almost no blue on her whatever. The males, of course, have bright blue abdomens, a green striped thorax, and green eyes. Blue dashers are “perching” dragonflies; they regulate their body temperature by basking in the sun. If they really…

Io Moth

The io moth, Automeris io, is notable for large eyespots in the middle of the hind wings. There are seven species in the US; Automeris io is the only one found in Florida. Its range extends through most of the eastern US. These moths are sometimes also called the corn emperor moth and peacock moth….

Whitefringed Weevil

The whitefringed beetle, or whitefringed weevil, Naupactus leucoloma, is originally from South America but can now be found across the southern US, Australia, and South Africa. They are a type of weevil with a broad, down-pointing snout. Adults are relatively large for a weevil, around 12 mm long. N. peregrinus is light to dark gray-brown…

Arrow-shaped Micrathena Spider

These striking spiders look like they ought to be related to the spiny orb-weaver (Gasteracantha sp). They are in the same family (Araneidae) but a different genus (Micrathena). They have fewer spines than Gasteracantha (and, again, probably a bunch of smaller details, like the number of hairs on the thorax or which way some microscopic…

Golden Silk Orb Weaver

These highly impressive spiders are brilliantly colored, very big (two to three inches across), and like to hang right at face-height in nearly invisible webs strung between branches. They are also known as banana spiders, although they do not like to hang out in bunches of fruit — they just are the color (and, it…

Pig Frog

Meet the pig frog, Lithobates grylio, also known as the southern bullfrog or lagoon frog. (It is also sometimes identified as Rana grylio, probably due to some minor quirk of scientific bickering about which I do not care.) This particular individual is about four inches long; these frogs can grow to more than six inches…

Paper Wasp

Paper wasps (Polistes sp.) are named because of the paper-like nests the queens build. They are members of the family Vespidae. Paper wasps are primitively eusocial, like bees. There are three castes: fertile queens, infertile female workers, and fertile males who do nothing but fertilize the queen. Founding queens sometimes start a nest in a…

Cobweb Spider

This little lady (about 5mm long) is a cobweb spider (Theridiidae sp., possibly Theridion varians, although the geographic range is wrong for that). She lives on my garage door, and I’ve photographed her a couple times “posing” with that Asian tramp snail (Bradybaena similaris) shell. This morning she had produced a beautiful egg sac of…

Habronattus Jumping Spider

I am pretty sure this is a female jumping spider in the Habronattus family. There are eleven species of Habronattus in Florida, and, alas, they are primarily differentiated by the microscopic morphology of male pedipalps. This is a female spider (male jumping spiders tend to be more brightly colored than the females), and I have…

Banana Spider

Huge but harmless, this lovely lady is about four inches across. A male of the species is only about 1/4 her size. These spiders are commonly called “banana spiders” not so much because they are yellow, but because they are often found among bunches of bananas during harvesting. I originally found this species described as…