This 8mm long brownish scarab beetle is the Asiatic garden beetle (Maladera castanea). It is native to East Asia, but has established itself through most of the eastern United States as well. (Of interesting note is that it took nearly 100 years from first being spotted in New York to make its way down to…
Author: Long Leggedy Beasties
Plant Bug Nymph
The only species in the genus Coccobaphes, Coccobaphes frontifer is an unassuming little bug — so unassuming that it doesn’t have a common name beyond “plant bug”, which actually encompasses the whole family, Miridae. Coccobaphes comes from the Greek for “berry colored”. This is a very small, probably first or second instar, nymph; the adult…
Calligrapha Beetle
Why is there not more written about this family of darling little beetles? Something like 80 species and subspecies of leaf beetles in the genus Calligrapha roam from Canada to Argentina, each one uniquely striped, splashed, or spotted black against a vividly colored, often red, green, or gold, background. They are sometimes pestiferous and their…
Laughing Gull
Laughing gulls are found on coasts in Florida and all over Central America, primarily on the Atlantic side. They are diurnal, but will forage at night during the breeding season when extra food is required for young. They walk or glide up and down the beach, looking for crabs, fish, carrion, human leftovers, and anything…
Waterhyacinth Planthopper Nymph
Megamelus scutellaris, a native of South America, was released in Florida in 2010 as a biological control agent for waterhyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, an invasive aquatic plant. Waterhyacinth forms amalgamations on the water’s surface and blocks sunlight from reaching other plants below it, and depleting available oxygen in the water. Adult waterhyacinth planthoppers come in two…
White-Nosed Coati
The most impressive part of this photo is that it was taken with a 22mm lens; this white-nosed coati (Nasua narica) was only about six feet away from me (and ignoring me completely). Taken just outside the ruins of Tulum, which allows me to say that I’ve been to the delightfully named state of Quintana…
Green Lacewing
I am 99% sure this green lacewing is Leucochrysa pavida, or possibly Nodita pavida depending on how much free time you have. The problem with green lacewings is that the differences between species often depend on one being able to take the insect apart, or at least get waaaaay up close like this for a…
Six-Spotted Fishing Spider
Fish-eating spiders are found on every continent except Antarctica. They use surface tension to run on the surface of the water, hunting insects, small fish, tadpoles, and anything else that lives at or near the surface. The spiders can walk on the water by using their paired legs in a manner not unlike boat paddles,…
Small Minnow Mayfly
This wonky little fellow is Callibaetis floridanus, a species of small minnow mayfly without a common name found almost exclusively in Florida and southern Georgia. It is one of only a few mayfly species whose nymphs (which are aquatic) can survive in partial saltwater as well as fresh water. Mayflies are the most primitive group…
Carolina Mantis Nymph
Less than 7 mm long, this newly emerged mantis nymph is already “praying” — or, rather, preying — standing in a high spot and waving gently back and forth like the stick it will someday resemble, waiting for something interesting to fly in reach. I can’t be 100% sure with a single photo of a…
Water Lily Planthopper
Meet the water lily planthopper, Megamelus davisi. Despite appearances, this atomic-scale little being (5mm long) is fully grown, and the “shrek ears” are what his/her antennae normally look like. Unlike most planthoppers, this one does not have wings, just the body plates that would protect the wings if they were there. This makes it look…
Silver Longjawed Orbweaver
This gorgeous little girl is posing on the orange moonscape that is my kayak. I helped her out of the water and onto the bow, and she was still riding when I got out, and kindly posed for me. This is definitely a female longjawed orbweaver spider, of the genus Tetragnatha. I am calling her…
Striated Lichen Moth
You’d think there’d be pages and pages written on this glorious little orange and black fellow, but no: Wikipedia has three whole sentences on the striated lichen moth (Cisthene striata). They’re about 10mm long, and differentiated from a number of similarly patterned species by the light gray stripes on the forewings. The Peterson Field Guide…
Green Leafhopper
The common green leafhopper, Hortensia similis, hitching a ride on my yellow kayak. …and that’s about all I can find about this insect online. It’s about 5-10 mm long. It may eat citrus plants or rice seedlings. It’s a relative of the cicada, and it’s part of the subfamily Cicadellinae, or sharpshooters, which refers to…
Drain Fly
These tiny “pests” — really harmless, nonbiting flies, but “pests” because they have no shame whatsoever in invading human bathrooms — seek water and dampness in drains, sewers, bathrooms, kitchens, and other human places. They can be annoying en masse — but I think they’re gorgeous singly and up close! Its wings are iridescent, look!…
Bristly Millipede
This one led me a merry chase through “first instar caterpillar”, “bagworm” and even “beetle larva” until finally an article about dermestid beetle larvae turned up a photo of a duff millipede. This is a millipede! Would you believe it? This extremely tiny (3mm) creature looks, at first glance, like a piece of lint. Getting…