Florida's newest invasive mealybug currently prefers roadside weeds but may pose a threat to solanaceous crops (e.g., tomatoes, peppers).

This species was only recently described from Japan where it is likely also introduced.

New open access paper: www.degruyter.com/document/doi...

A tiny weevil (Euplatypus compositus) with several mites on board.

North central Florida

This moth was attracted my head torch and decided to rest on the net-casting spider I was photographing!

Deinopis spinosa (Deinopidae) with Arta olivalis (Pyralidae) in north central Florida. #SpiderSunday

New paper out! We describe three new species of giant mealybugs from Mexico & Guatemala. You think spiders have a lot of eyes until you see male Puto mealybugs. Some species have 18 eyes!

The drawing is Puto philo, pictured alive is a Puto decorosus from California.
www.mapress.com/zt/article/v...

More of the sentient gherkins 🥒 from yesterday, this time on their preferred host, croton (Codiaeum variegatum). They blend in beautifully.

Phalacrococcus howertoni first showed up in Florida in 2008 and was undescribed at the time. It probably originates from the Caribbean or South America.

Ants tending their sentient pet gherkins 🥒

Little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata) and croton scale (Phalacrococcus howertoni) in south Florida

Cockerell (1898) described this whitefly species as with "...ribbon-like rays of glassy secretion, not much shorter than itself. These rays are of a bright lemon yellow".

Now we have some live photos to show it! Lemon yellow indeed. Aleuroplatus vinsonioides (Aleyrodidae)

The final guy of 2023 and #invertefest. A little subadult male Pardosa sp. (?) wolf spider (Lycosidae) in my yard this afternoon.

North central Florida #SpiderSunday

Only a small proportion of my photos end up on social media platforms. All of my observations go on iNaturalist, there's a total of 1,875 for 2023!
www.inaturalist.org/people/645281

L -> R Dysimia pseudomaculata mating pair, Cyarda sp., Encarsia noyesi, Colonus sylvanus eating Anasaitis canosa

Happy New Year! Here's a quick collection of just a few of my favorites from 2023.

An assortment of scale insects, spiders, various arthropods from Florida, and arthropods from my summer trip to Europe which spanned Georgia (Republic of), Switzerland, France, England, and Scotland.

My top inverts of the year! Pecan giant scales (Neosteingelia texana). Active for only a couple weeks, emerging from the bark briefly to mate. These were out on hickory in late October in north FL. This year was my first time seeing them, I was slightly obsessed.

Name a more sexually dimorphic duo!