mlindsay's Identifications

Visual Description: The organism observed is commonly known as Florida Scrub Lizard belonging to Genus Sceloporus. It is considered a deuterostome since its anus forms before its mouth. The Florida Scrub Lizard is about 5 inches, it's gray-brown with a thick brown stripe that runs down each side of the body from the neck to the base of the tail.

Location and Habitat: This organism was found at a suburban area at the University of South Florida, on March 03, 2022 at 10:17 AM. Florida Scrub Lizards are habitat specialists that live in dry uplands such as scrub, sandhill, and scrubby flatwoods. They require sunny areas with large amounts of bare sand adjacent to shrubs of trees that provide escape cover and shade.

Range: The general distribution of the Florida Scrub Lizard is restricted to Florida, specifically in Peninsular Florida. It is distributed in scattered sand pine and rosemary srcub areas from Marion and Putnam counties southward to Dade county.
Common Name: Florida Scrub Lizard.
Species Name: Sceloporous woodi

References:
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/UW133
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Sceloporus_woodi/#:~:text=Geographic%20Range,Dade%20county%20(Carr%201959).

The species observed was long and slender, about 4 inches, with smooth scales, small, short legs, and a long slowly tapering tail. The body was dark brown or black with pale yellow stripes and a blue tail. Due to the blue tail, I believe it was a juvenile skink. This particular lizard was found in a Cyprus wetland bordering a freshwater lake.

This butterfly that I observed had very distinct dotted wings that signified it as a white peacock butterfly. Their wings are traditional triangle wings with a dotted pattern on the inner wings of the butterfly. Also the wings starting from an orange like tint and turning slowly into a pale white like color. In my observation I believe it is shown that some of the wings on the butterfly are broken, this prevented the butterfly from flying as much as it wanted to along with the plenty of others that also littered the specific area.
The White Peacock is normally found near areas where it is warm, open, weedy situations where something like fields or parks where there is an abundance of water, in the form of a pond or stream. Their main habitable regions are going to revolve around the region either being tropical or terrestrial. In this observation the butterfly was found by a pond as its body of water. In this case, the pond in the community housed around 5-10 of these butterflies flying around the pond.
The white peacock ranges from Argentina north through Central America, Mexico, and the West Indies to South Texas and southern Florida. Migrates and temporarily colonizes to central Texas and coastal South Carolina. A rare wanderer to North Carolina, Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas.
The White peacock is an insect class because of its ability to fly and still be able to use its legs effectively.

References
“White Peacock Butterfly (GTM Research Reserve Butterfly Guide) · INATURALIST.” INaturalist, https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/358039#:~:text=Habitat,-8&text=White%20peacock%20butterflies%20are%20commonly,where%20host%20plants%20are%20abundant.

“White Peacock Anartia Jatrophae (Linnaeus, 1763).” White Peacock Anartia Jatrophae (Linnaeus, 1763) | Butterflies and Moths of North America, 3 Feb. 2022, https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Anartia-jatrophae.

“Class Insecta (Arthropoda).” Test Page for Apache Installation, http://jupiter.plymouth.edu/~lts/invertebrates/Primer/text/insecta.html.

This brown anole was small (9 inches approximately), it had a brown color with dark spots in its back and a thin tail.
The defining characteristics that made me classify it as a Deuterostome were that it has true tissues, it is bilaterally symmetric, and develops the anus before the mouth during embryonic development.
It was found in a tree of a hardwood swamp forest.
Reference: https://animalia.bio/brown-anole#:~:text=Brown%20anoles%20are%20active%20during,territories%20within%20one%20male%20territory.

Visual description: This deuterostome was about 4 inches in length. It had shades of brown and green throughout its body. It had four legs, a mouth, and a tail. At the end of each leg it had 5 finger-like extensions that branched off. The skin texture was rough, but did not appear to contain scales.

Defining characteristics: The defining characteristics that make this organism a deuterostome occur in the embryonic stages. In this stage, the anus forms before the mouth. Deuterostomes also contain radial cleavage.

Habitat: Anoles typically live in damp and humid environments. This Anoles was found in Florida, a very humid state. More specifically it was near a lake in a local neighborhood, which has a damp environment. This specific Anoles was spotted clinging to fence. Anole's are typically found clinging to surfaces similar to fences such as walls or trees.

Sources: https://pediaa.com/difference-between-protostomes-and-deuterostomes/ , https://nhpbs.org/natureworks/greenanole.htm#3

Spanish moss on trees was spotted in usf campus. It is seed plant belongs to angiosperm clade, monocots. It has a curved and curly shaped on the tree branches. Light green color.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_moss

The Spanish Moss is a flowering plant (seed plant) that drapes along trees, fences, and telephones lines. The gray leaves are about 2.5 to 8 cm long. The petals are either blue or pale green and are about 6 to 8 mm long (https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_tius.pdf). Even though this is a seed plant, Spanish Moss does not have roots. All parts of Spanish Moss has the ability to soak up water and the nutrients that it needs )https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/natural-resources/sustainability-spanish-moss/)

The squirrel has four limbs with a long bushy tail, big dark eyes, small snout and ears. Its body is small a bit longer than a hand. Its fur is grey mixed with brown and has white fur at its belly. One characteristic that defines it as a rodent is its tail and body shape and size as well as its sharp claws.
https://www.chesapeakebay.net/discover/field-guide/entry/eastern_gray_squirrel#:~:text=The%20eastern%20gray%20squirrel%20has,long%20and%20weigh%201.5%20pounds.
The habitat is disturbed the squirrel was on the grounds of USF st pete campus on a palm tree in a grassy area surrounded by a building and the bay.
The geographic distribution is eastern U.S.

Lizard shape, transparent white color with tan specks and lines along back, long toes, brown large eyes, and a bumpy skin texture. About 3 inches long. Found outside of home on the roof of my patio near the light, most likely looking for a meal. They’re native to the Mediterranean area, India, and the Middle East, but also found in many states in the United States. https://www.northwestfloridaoutdooradventure.com/2012/08/19/mediterranean-geckos-urban-geckos-of-florida-and-the-southeast/

The organism is roughly 48 inches long, 18 inches wide. It is hanging in an oak tree, among several other specimens.

The moss is grey with a green tint.

It has a hair like texture that branches out. A single clump is a mass of the different branches all intermixed.

It can be seen that this alligator has a rough, scaly body, and is about 8 feet long. The color of this alligator is dark green. This alligator was extremely hard to spot since it was underwater, only showing its eyes and the tip of its nose. A description of this organism can be found at https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/american-alligator. This alligator was specifically spotted in a lake in the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve. Alligators can be found in coastal wetlands. They can be spotted in moving rivers, ponds, swamps, and lakes.

This alligator was Dark Green and 3 to 3.5 feet long. It had a long tail with four legs and flat U-shaped jaw/snout. It also had a thick scale-armored body.

This habitat was a fresh water lake.

Found in the shallow end of Lettuce Lake State Park in Hillsborough County, Florida. The habitat had excess moss and leaves covering the slow-moving fresh water.

Found in coastal wetlands in the United States. Range extending from North Carolina to Eastern Texas down to southern Florida.

Defining characteristics that this alligator is a reptile is that it has a spine, and its body is completely armored with thick scales.

See:
nhpbs.org/natureworks/americanalligator.htm

Visual Description: Sciurus carolinensis is a small to medium sized rodent with relatively large hind legs and an oval-like body. It has gray-brown fur with a white underbelly. Sciurus carolinensis has a bushy tail with silver fringes and small ears. Definitive characteristics: Like all organisms of order rodentia, the Eastern Gray Squirrel has one upper and one lower incisor adapt for gnawing

Habitat: Sciurus carolinensis is native to the midwest and east of North America, ranging from south Florida and Texas to New England and parts of Canada. They live in woodland areas, especially those with oak and hickory trees. The gray squirrel can also live in urban and suburban areas, particularly in parks or grassy areas with trees. Full distribution map here: http://naturemappingfoundation.org/natmap/maps/wa/mammals/WA_eastern_gray_squirrel.html

References: http://naturemappingfoundation.org/natmap/maps/wa/mammals/WA_eastern_gray_squirrel.html
https://animalia.bio/eastern-gray-squirrel
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Sciurus_carolinensis/

This moss was a light green, almost white, color and was about a little over a foot long. This organism was found on a tree at the end of a parking lot. The geographic distribution of Spanish Moss is usually shaded places, swamps, and marshes.
Here is an in depth description of this moss: https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/cs_tius.pdf

Size shape color:
Elongated body, roughly a foot in length, grey with black blotches on its body with small rattle.
Determining characteristic:
Elongated body, fork tongue, small rattle, greyish with black blotches on body and small size helped to determine that this is a species of rattlesnake.
Habitat :
This species was found on a trail blending in with the leaf litter in pine flatwoods.
Also found in: prairies, near bodies of water, freshwater marshes and cypress swamps.
Reference
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-snake-id/snake/dusky-pygmy-rattlesnake/
https://www.centralfloridazoo.org/animals/dusky-pygmy-rattlesnake/

Visual Description:
The White Peacock Wings were approximately 2 inches in length and 1 inch in width. Their wings was white near center with the outer edges consisting of patterns of orange and brown and black spots in certain areas.

Defining Characters:
The White Peacock could be identified as a protostome. The White peacock contains an exoskeleton and is bilateral symmetry indicating characteristics of Arthropods which is categorized under Protostomes

Habitat:
This White Peacock was found in an open field of weeds and flower in my backyard nearby an open pond. The White Peacock is usually found in warm climates and open fields nearby ponds or streams. They can be found around Southeastern United States.

References:https://www.butterflyidentification.com/white-peacock.htm
https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/358039#:~:text=Habitat,-8&text=White%20peacock%20butterflies%20are%20commonly,where%20host%20plants%20are%20abundant.

Green Anole
NOTES
Visual Description: This Lizard was approximately 2-3 inches long. It’s tail was almost as long as it’s body. This Lizard had a bright green color on its dorsal side while being white on its ventral side. It had four legs with four toes per leg. It’s head was in the shape of a triangle and under his head he could puff it out and it would become red. It’s head is usually pointed upward with its back legs pointed out to the side.

Defining Characteristics: This organism is a Deuterostome. It’s scales indicate that it is a reptile, more specifically, a lizard. It’s green color makes it very easy to identify

Habitat: This lizard was found on a concrete ledge near a green bush at the University of South Florida. These organisms are native to the southeastern United States. Therefore are very common in Florida

Reference: https://srelherp.uga.edu/lizards/anocar.htm