Cicadas and other bugs

There are 19 cicada species known in Florida. Normally we only see their cast-off nymphal skeletons on trees and shrubs but we can always hear their loud summertime calls. This is a rather rare look at a cicada emerging from its nymph (above and below).

The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has a good scientific description of all 19 cicadas, their calls, and other information at this LINK. I could not determine which of the 19 species this one might be.





Abundant this year are robber flies -- Insects in the Diptera family Asilidae. The family Asilidae contains about 7,100 species worldwide.

All robber flies have 3 simple eyes in a depression between their two large compound eyes. They possess short, strong proboscis used to stab and inject victims with saliva containing neurotoxic and proteolytic enzymes which paralyze and digest the insides; the fly then sucks the liquefied meal through the proboscis.

Another rather rare photo below: A robber fly making a meal of a bee. The flower is Mexican Clover (Richardia scarba) which covers the ground just about everywhere in East Central Florida. The weed is insignificant until you look at it in extreme close up. I've found that it is a favorite of many bugs and butterflies. See other photos I've taken in Mexican Clover at this LINK.





Above and Below: Horned leaf-hoppers (Ceresa alta) in extreme close up. These little bugs are everywhere this time of year. They are tiny plant-feeding insects. They are pesky in that they will hop onto one's arm or face and our instinct is that they are preparing to bite. . . when in fact they are uninterested in us. I find them especially bothersome when I'm trying to weed around my watermelon vines in the sandy field behind the house.



Below: This is a Gray Hairstreak Butterfly (Strymon melinus). I had rarely seen one of these with outstretched wings . . . so it was a difficult identification. . . but after looking at hundreds of possibilities I'm pretty well convinced that this is the Grey Hairstreak. The other possibility is the Eastern Tailed-blue butterfly which was common in spring in the wild clover that lined the roadsides. See more of those images at this LINK.



Below: This is the Common Checkered-Skipper (Pyrgus communis (Grote, 1872)). This one is a male, identifiable by the blue-gray color of his body. The female of the species is black. These little guys patrol in the afternoon. . . roosting on tall plants. This one likely measured only 1" across (2.5 cm).