3-1-09 Pine Island Ridge
So you guys have inspired us to get out of the water and see what there is to see on dry land. We feel pretty confident on the reef but complete neophites on land. So we went out and purchased a butterfly field guide to florida and took a stroll through the local park and the "natural area" that connects it to our neighborhood.
Gotta give it to you guys, insects are way harder than fish. I think we correctly identified all the butterflies we ran accross this day but flipping through the pages, the differences in some of these guys is pretty subtle. I mean there are six pages of grass skippers that look exactly the same to my untrained eye. Zebra (heliconian), Julia (heliconian) and Atalas were plentiful. We also observed all three members of genus Danaus in the state of Florida.
Outside of butterflies, there were quite a few insects I probably naively call dragonflies. Can anyone recomend a good field guide for insects. I'm sure nothing can be particularly comprehensive given the number of species, but we've gotta start somewhere.
We also saw a southern ringneck snake and an unidentifiable brown snake that refused to smile for the camera. We didn't get any bird pics , but did see a couple of youngish Great Egrets, an unidentifiable hawk, and of course the everpresent American White Ibis.
We also observed a few species of spider. I got a few good pics of a banana spider and a spiny-backed orbweaver but the gruesome spider highlight of the day involved a species that I have yet to identify. I was searching some low bushes for spiders and saw a mating pair of dragonflies bumble into a web. They were still attached to each other so one thrashed around in vain while the undersized spider cautiously took care of the other. Just the idea of waiting around mid-coitus while watching your mate being wrapped up for dinner kind of freaks me out a little. I got some video but I didn't have a tripod with me so its pretty weak footage. If I can piece together something that doesn't induce vomiting maybe I'll post it later.
All in all, a fun day. Evidently you don't have to pack up loads of gear and drive to the beach to have a good time. Who knew?
Observations
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flapackDescription
So evidently the Zebra is the state butterfly of Florida.
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Brown-winged Striped Sweat Bee (Agapostemon splendens)Observer
flapackDescription
So I know nothing about insects. Is this guy even a wasp? Probably just over a cm in length. The thorax is an iridescent green. Green head and eyes. Legs yellow with black markings.
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Scarlet Skimmer (Crocothemis servilia)Observer
flapackDescription
Once again, I know nothing about insects. Anyone have suggestions for a good field guide for insects. Just seems like there are too many species.
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Golden Silk Spider (Trichonephila clavipes)Observer
flapackDescription
These golden orb weavers are just everywhere down here. In some places the concentrations are just crazy.
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Band-winged Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax umbrata)Observer
flapackDescription
About 2 inches in length. Very calm and unperturbed when I approached to get the shot.
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Spinybacked Orbweaver (Gasteracantha cancriformis)Observer
flapackDescription
Spinybacked Orbweaver
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Atala (Eumaeus atala)Observer
flapackDescription
This was our favorite of the day. They are smallish, but beautiful and cooperative with the camera. Our field guide says they were once almost eliminated from the U.S. but have made a comeback in S. Florida. There was certainly no shortage of them on this day.
Comments
Those are some awesome bugs! Insects and spiders can indeed be really hard to ID, and frankly there are just too many of them with too many subtle differences for there to be a particularly good field guides. This becomes particularly apparent when you try to ID specimens using a dichotomous key and you realize many species can only be reliably distinguished by counting hairs or looking for minuscule claws. With just a photo and a guide, I'm usually pretty happy if I can get to family.
Colorful butterflies are something of an exception, thankfully (skippers being sort of an exception to the exception in my mind, as you pointed out). The Kaufman guide is what I use and it's a wonderful guide. Butterflies and Moths of North America is a fantastic, comprehensive listing of all NA butterflies and moths with county records for each species. The Peterson insect guides are decent starting points if you have absolutely no idea what you're looking at, but generally aren't comprehensive enough for reliable species IDs.
For spiders, the Spiders and Their Kin is a tiny but actually quite excellent guide to the more common arachnid groups. Spiders of North America is the Bible of North American spider genera, but it's mostly keys oriented toward having a specimen under a dissecting scope, and isn't really too much use on photos unless you take lots and lots of very detailed shots.
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