Sunday, February 10, 2008

Fauna of the Florida Keys

Location: Jupiter, Florida

I am currently at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, in Jupiter, Florida, but I wanted to share some of the Florida fauna I encountered during my recent visit to the Keys. Portuguese Man-of-War Jellyfish (Physalia pysalis, with a warning posted on the beach because a lot of them had washed ashore), a beetle on a flower (UPDATE: See comments section for correct identification by Vasha), Gulf Fritillary butterflies (Agraulis vanillae), a pelican feeding frenzy, a Silver Argiope spider (Argiope argentata), and a hermit crab (who we saw actually climb a tree) are just a few of the interesting specimens I encountered either at the Winter Star Party or at Bahia Honda (pronounced BAY ee ah Onda) State Park:


Click for Larger Image of Portuguese Man of War
Click for Larger Image of Beetle
Click for Larger Image of Butterfly
Click for Larger Image of Feeding Frenzy
Click for Larger Image of Silver Argiope
Click for Larger Image of Hermit Crab
Click for Larger Image of Homo Sapien

5 comments:

AYDIN Ă–RSTAN said...

Did you pick up any specimens, especially of the bipedal kinds?

O.B. Sirius said...

Nope -- my policy:
Leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but photos -- and a few sneaky glances.

Anonymous said...

I want to see the photos of the upright primate in your photo selection. You go girl!
N

Anonymous said...

The insect in your second photo is a halfwing (Hemiptera, a.k.a. bug) rather than a beetle. The photos at the bottom of this page show the difference pretty clearly.

Anonymous said...

That link seems not to be working, so here it is in plain text: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~grange/Insects.html