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…
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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…
Southern Yellowjacket
This grumpy, chilly southern yellowjacket (Vespula squamosa) would not have let me get this photo if it hadn’t been 55 degrees F outside. She was sunning herself and did not appreciate being photographed; you can see her head turned toward me, and one foreleg half-raised in a very rude gesture. These social wasps are found…
Cuban Tree Frog
This little Cuban tree frog (Osteopilus septentrionalis) is adorable, but it’s another invasive species. It grows larger than our native tree frogs, outcompetes them for food, and unfortunately also eats them. The University of Florida Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation actually recommends euthanizing Cuban tree frogs if you find them on your property! These…
Southern Emerald Moth
The delightful, (1/2″ wide) Synchlora frondaria is most notable for its larvae, tiny caterpillars which disguise themselves by “gluing” pieces of plants and flowers to themselves so they look like debris. (From this behavior comes the common name “camouflaged looper”, since the caterpillars are “looper” caterpillars which form loops with their body (like all inchworms)…
Shieldbacked Pine Seed Bug
You would think narrowing down an identification to “shield bug” would have you almost done, wouldn’t you? Man, that doesn’t even narrow it down to family. It was ridiculous trying to get this handsome little guy down from “bug” to “stink bug” (nope) to “soldier bug” (nope) to “shield bug” (nope) to “shieldbacked bug” (at…
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…
Green Lacewing Eggs
These delicate little white eggs, each on its own half-inch stalk, are about 2mm long. They actually hatch into some fairly fierce predators: the larvae of green lacewings (Chrysopidae). The adult insects are delicate little things (although still predatory) but the half-inch larvae have huge, spiky mandibles and are known as aphid wolves or aphid…
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…
Root Maggot Fly
This is one of those species where the scientific web sites say almost nothing, other than to argue over semantics and exactly who named the insect last, and the pest control sites have a lot to say. (What can I say, nobody seems to want to write a PhD thesis on small, feces-eating flies.) As…
Ailanthus Webworm Moth
This tiny (1 cm) day-flying moth is actually native to Florida (so it’s funny I found this one in Indiana). The moth’s larvae used to live almost exclusively on the paradise tree (Simarouba glauca) in Florida, but when the “tree of heaven” (Ailanthus altissima) was introduced to the US from China, the ailanthus webworm moth…
Leaf-Footed Bug
This is probably an adult female leaf-footed bug (Acanthocephala declivis) — this species is named for the exaggerated “femurs” on its back legs, and the femurs are larger in the male, with impressive spikes. She’s about an inch and a half long, not including her antennae. Leaf-footed bugs are named after the “leafy” extensions of…
Julia Butterfly
Dryas iulia (often incorrectly spelled julia) is also known as the Julia butterfly, Julia heliconian, the flame, or flambeau. It is the sole member of the genus Dryas, native from Brazil to the southern United States. There are more than 15 described subspecies. Approximately 80-90 mm across, its elongated wings are primarily orange with black…
Black Horse Fly
Anyone who has owned livestock will know this inch-long black fighter jet of a fly. Black horse flies (Tabanus atratus) are huge, loud, and persistent attackers of mammals in the females’ quest to get a blood meal in order to reproduce. They fear no swatter. A million years ago, I worked at a wolf sanctuary,…
Hentz Orb Weaver Eating a Dragonfly
This is quite possibly the most “nature is metal” photo I’ve ever taken. This Hentz orb weaver spider (Neoscona crucifera), about 2″ radius max, has taken down a fully grown great blue skipper dragonfly (Libuella vibrans), which is about 3 1/2″ inches long. Imagine the rodeo that must have been!
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….