We’re going to be like The Hobbit and break this visit to Withlacoochee River Park in late October into two posts. First the bugs and other creatures. Mike very helpfully converted these picture to blog format.

A green mantidfly. We’ve never see one of these before.

A peninsula ribbon snake (photo taken by Mike)

And the rest we haven’t identified. But isn’t this a really cool stick bug? (Maybe a long-headed toothpick grasshopper?) This is also a creature we’ve not seen before.

A brilliantly furry and patient moth. [Update: we think this is an Io moth with its bright eyespot underwings hidden]

These dragonflies were in dense forest and rested in deep shadows on tree trunks.

Like the green spider we saw at a previous park, this white spider was waiting for an appropriately sized morsel to come to the flower it sat under. We watched a zebra longwings fluttering around this plant.