Bugs to Find on a Cold Florida Morning

October 1, 2016

The zipper spider, Argiope aurantia, is a common inhabitant of suburban gardens.

You don't need to leave the trail to find cool bugs in Florida. Even when it's cold, arachnids and insects are never in short supply. Some, I confess, are not particularly pleasant. The lumps on the back of my neck are a testimony to mosquitoes.

However, the vast majority of Florida bugs are stunningly beautiful. In October, there are still a lot of crigs (crickets, grasshoppers, and katydids) to be found, and the large Schistocerca (which the locals call "locusts") are especially obvious, buzzing from tree to tree when they are approached.

The spider webs are just gorgeous in the early, golden light of morning.

Certainly among the most interesting bugs are the spiders. On this morning, the web-spinners are easy to spot. With silk speckled by morning dew, and their creators suspended optimistically in their centers, everyone notices (except for, apparently, that passing moth that is also now suspended in the web). Spiders are remarkably colourful. The bright yellows of banana spiders and zipper spiders can give the impression that this is the tropics. And I suppose Florida is subtropical, but it hardly feels that way when the temperature is down in the 40s (Fahrenheit).

Josiah Shade admires the colours of Nephila, the banana spider.

Traditionally, wooly-bear caterpillars have been seen as indicators of the coming winter months. Unfortunately, there isn't much scientific basis for this old wive's tale but the caterpillars do turn up in the fall in significant numbers as they search for a place to hunker down and spend the cooler months. My friend spotted this fantastic variety of the wooly bear caterpillar of the Virginia tiger moth. There are a few different colour phases of this caterpillar but the snow-white variety that we found is particularly stunning.

Spilosoma, the wooly bear caterpillar. This particular variety of the Virginia tiger moth produces snow-white caterpillars.

Bugging (the act of seeking out bugs) is an extremely rewarding exercise. As a classic naturalist, it never lets me down. When I can't find the reptiles I'm herping for, I can always find bugs. When the birding is bad, there's a bug. Sometimes, I just ditch the other kinds of wildlife that could be found and focus on bugs alone. No other group has so much diversity and colour.

The shadow of a large female Nephila is cast on the cheek of Josiah Shade.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Banana Spider

I thought that if I dedicated a post to a butterfly (everybody loves butterflies) than I had better dedicate a post to a spider (not many people like spiders). This gall (elegantly named Nephila clavipes) is the perfect candidate for one very obvious reason; she is drop-dead gorgeous. And besides all that, she is nearly the breadth of may hand from leg tip to leg tip, hence the name of banana spider. She has a number of other common names, but I like to call her Nephila. I know it's a she because the males are all little tiny blokes. Interestingly, the genus Nephila has been found as fossils which have been dated to about 165 million years ago. Living fossils like that are a challenge to Neo-Darwinianism. That species (N. jurassica) had a leg span of 15 centimetres (6 inches) and is the largest definitive spider fossil. The web of this spider is also of interest. The silk is so strong and beautifully gold (hence the common name of golden silk orb-weaver) that people sometimes try to make clothing out of it. This individual was photographed on September 21 of this year at Blackwater River State Park in the panhandle of Florida. Anyways, I hope this girl helps you appreciate the beauty of some of the other members of creation who might not seem as loveable at first glance.