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…
Category: Insects
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…
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…
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…
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!…
Sri Lankan Weevil
This diminutive Muppet is, unfortunately, an exotic, invasive pest which arrived in Florida around the year 2000 and is quietly eating its way through native, ornamental, vegetable and fruit plants. The adults eat the leaves; the larvae eat the root systems. Alas! Everything cute is terrible and evil. The Sri Lankan weevil (either Myllocerus undecimpustulatus…
Flesh Fly
This photo is most notable for the fly having been chilly enough (“winter” in Florida) that it held still for me to get within 3 inches and get a photograph. I cannot normally catch flies, so to speak, with my macro rig. The 108 genera, and 2500 species, of flesh flies eat carrion, dung, and…
Green Lacewing
There are 22 species of “green lacewing” in Florida, spread across a number of families, and the identification key reads like marketing material from the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, reminding me of a quote from Carl Sagan: “Before you can identify a green lacewing, you must first invent the universe…or at least look up the definition…
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…
Cotton Stainer
This brilliant red and black insect looks a lot like a red stink bug. It is in fact a “cotton stainer”, Dysdercus suturellus. These insects used to be great pests of cotton (they were named for their habit of staining cotton an indelible yellow brown), but now, due in part to improved pest control and…
Cave Cricket
This photo was taken in 2012 during a visit to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Just as we were leaving, I had the misfortune to look up and find dozens of these huge, long-legged crickets crawling along the ceiling! Cave crickets (there are several species, but the one specifically living in Mammoth Cave is Hadenoecus subterraneus)…
Long-Tailed Skipper
This one was hard to identify, mostly because “black swallowtail” describes a bunch of species, and “black butterfly” describes even more. Ironically, this is a very distinctive butterfly which I happened to catch at a terrible angle: if I’d seen this butterfly from above, I would have noticed the bright blue upper side which would…