Saturday Butterfly BioBlitz at B. B. Brown’s Gardens, Lake County, Florida

I will be leading a series BioBlitz events focusing on plants, butterflies, and other critters at B.B. Brown’s Gardens located at 11490 Monte Vista Road, Clermont, FL 34711. 

We need your help to find and record as many species as possible.  This is great fun for kids and adults.  BioBlitz starts at 10:00 am and ends at 2:00 pm.  Please join us!

For more information, please contact info@scrubjaytrail.org (352) 429-5566.

Butterflies seen at B.B. Brown’s Gardens on April 18, 2015.

FAMILY	SCIENTIFIC NAME	COMMON NAME
Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae	Lerodea eufala	Eufala Skipper
Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae	Polites vibex	Whirlabout Skipper
Hesperiidae: Hesperiinae	Hylephila phyleus	Fiery Skipper
Hesperiidae: Pyrginae	Pyrgus oileus	Tropical Checkered-Skipper
Hesperiidae: Pyrginae	Erynnis horatius	Horace's Duskywing
Nymphalidae: Heliconiinae	Heliconius charithonia tuckeri	Zebra Heliconian
Nymphalidae: Heliconiinae	Agraulis vanillae nigrior	Gulf Fritillary
Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae	Vanessa virginiensis	American Lady
Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae	Junonia coenia	Common Buckeye
Papilionidae: Papilioninae	Battus philenor philenor	Pipevine Swallowtail
Papilionidae: Papilioninae	Papilio polyxenes asterius	Black Swallowtail
Papilionidae: Papilioninae	Pterourus palamedes	Palamedes Swallowtail
Papilionidae: Papilioninae	Battus polydamas lucayus	Polydamas Swallowtail
Pieridae: Coliadinae	Pyrisitia lisa	Little Yellow
Pieridae: Coliadinae	Phoebis sennae eubule	Cloudless Sulphur
Pieridae: Pierinae	Ascia monuste phileta	Great Southern White

An American Lady at B.B. Brown’s Gardens in April 2015.

Plants in flower at B.B. Brown’s Gardens on April 18, 2015.

FAMILY	SCIENTIFIC NAME	COMMON NAME
Acanthaceae	Ruellia caroliniensis	Carolina Wild Petunia
Adoxaceae	Sambucus nigra subsp. canadensis	American Elder
Alismataceae	Sagittaria lancifolia subsp. lancifolia	Bulltongue Arrowhead
Amaranthaceae	Gomphrena serrata	Globe Amaranth
Annonaceae	Asimina pygmaea	Dwarf Pawpaw
Aquifoliaceae	Ilex vomitoria	Yaupon
Asteraceae	Ageratum houstonianum	Bluemink
Asteraceae	Bidens alba var radiata	Beggarticks
Asteraceae	Coreopsis lanceolata	Lanceleaf Tickseed
Asteraceae	Emilia fosbergii	Florida Tasselflower
Asteraceae	Erechtites hieracifolia	American Burnweed
Asteraceae	Gaillardia pulchella	Firewheel
Asteraceae	Pyrrhopappus carolinianus	Carolina Desertchicory
Asteraceae	Sonchus oleraceus	Common Sowthistle
Boraginaceae	Heliotropium angiospermum	Scorpionstail
Cactaceae	Opuntia humifusa	Pricklypear
Caprifoliaceae	Lonicera sempervirens	Coral Honeysuckle
Caryophyllaceae	Drymaria cordata	West Indian Chickweed
Commelinaceae	Commelina diffusa var. diffusa	Common Dayflower
Curcurbitaceae	Momordica charantia	Balsampear
Euphorbiaceae	Phyllanthus tenellus	Mascarene Island Leafflower
Fabaceae	Erythrina herbacea	Coralbean
Fabaceae	Mimosa strigillosa	Powderpuff
Fumariaceae	Fumaria officinalis	Earthsmoke
Lamiaceae	Salvia coccinea	Tropical Sage
Lamiaceae	Stachys floridana	Florida Hedgenettle
Lentibulariaceae	Utricularia foliosa	Leafy Bladderwort
Magnoliaceae	Magnolia grandiflora	Southern Magnolia
Malvaceae	Malvaviscus penduliflorus	Turkscap Mallow
Malvaceae	Sida acuta	Common Wireweed
Malvaceae	Sida rhombifolia	Indian Hemp
Myrtaceae	Eugenia foetida	Spanish Stopper
Nymphaeaceae	Nuphar advena subsp. orbiculata	Spatterdock
Nymphaeaceae	Nymphaea odorata	American White Waterlily
Onagraceae	Ludwigia peruviana	Peruvian Primrosewillow
Onagraceae	Oenothera laciniata	Cutleaf Eveningprimrose
Oxalidaceae	Oxalis corniculata	Common Yellow Woodsorrel
Portulacaceae	Portulaca pilosa	Pink Purslane
Rubiaceae	Richardia brasiliensis	Tropical Mexican Clover
Verbenaceae	Lantana camara	Lantana
Veronicaceae	Linaria canadensis	Canada Toadflax

A New Cockroach in Florida!

I work for the Suwannee River Water Management District in Live Oak, Florida.  In June I started organizing paperwork associated with our water quality monitoring.  The floor of my office is temporarily piled with stacks of papers.  On Monday June 15, 2015 I picked up one of the stacks from the floor and out fell a small bug.  I was not too surprised because beetles, millipedes, and other invertebrates sometimes find their way into the building from outside. 

I looked at the bug closely.  What was this?  The bug was dead, but still soft.  It was black with an orange-red pronotum and yellow along the margins of the wings.  At first glance, I thought it was a firefly, but no.  This was a cockroach.  A pretty little cockroach of a species that I had never seen before! 

With a little searching on the World Wide Web, I was able to find a key to the cockroaches of Florida developed by Dr. Paul Choate, Professor of Entomology, and his students at the University of Florida (http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/SPEC/Manual/ufblattaria_new.pdf).  However, none of the species in this publication matched the specimen from my office.  With a further investigation on the Web, I discovered photos of the Pale Bordered Field Cockroach (Pseudomops septentrionalis), which did match the roach from my office.  This tropical species is apparently native from Central America to Texas and has been spreading throughout the southeastern U.S. in recent years. 

I contacted Dr. Paul Skelley with the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA) in Gainesville.  He was not aware of any specimens of the Pale Bordered Field Cockroach from Florida.  However, Bugguide.net (http://bugguide.net/node/view/7856/data) does list two previous reports, so my specimen is not the first sighting of this species in Florida.  Michael Riffle posted a photo of a female with an egg case taken in Tallahassee on July 31, 2013 and Fran Rutkovsky posted a photo of another specimen from Tallahassee taken on June 2, 2015.  I donated the specimen from my office to the FSCA to document its occurrence and Kyle Schnepp kindly confirmed the identification.

So doesn’t Florida have enough cockroaches, especially in Tallahassee?  Apparently not!  Huge changes are occurring in insect populations, most likely in response to global warming.  As insects go, butterflies are relatively easy to track.  The checkered-skippers are especially interesting because the once common Common Checkered-skipper (Pyrgus communis) has disappeared from Florida, while the Tropical Checkered-skipper (Pyrgus oileus) has expanded its range from the southern half of the state to throughout the southeast.  In addition, the western White Checkered-skipper (Pyrgus albescens) invaded the Panhandle sometime in the 1990s and quickly spread throughout the state, even the Keys.

Luckily, the Pale Bordered Field Cockroach is not an insect that frequents houses.  It prefers outdoor, wooded habitats.  I’ve been searching for additional specimens in the vegetation outside my office building, but so far, no luck.   How this new insect will affect Florida’s ecology remains to be seen.  You never know what you may find in your yard or office for that matter!

The Pale Bordered Field Cockroach found in my office in Live Oak.   The live insect is much prettier.