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This is an 11.5 mm female long-horned bee that formed part of an aggregation of about 150 similar females nesting in fine white sand in a Florida sandhill habitat. There are wetlands nearby with large stands of pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata).

The nesting behavior of the female shown here, and of the other females around it, was as follows: The bees’ nests lacked visible entrance holes, because the fine white sand of the nest area immediately filled in any holes dug by the bees. The female bees, laden with yellow pollen, flew around the nest area, low to the ground, in order to sense the location of their underground nests. They then landed and dug down into bare sand until disappearing. The sand closed behind them, leaving no evidence of the nest entrance. Females emerged five to ten minutes later, without pollen loads.

The nesting area of the long-horned bee females was visited throughout the day by Triepeolus cuckoo bees. These brood parasites were observed repeatedly entering individual Melissodes nests, including the nest of the bee shown here.

Some of the notable traits of the Melissodes female shown here include the following. (1) The hair bands on the second, third and fourth segments of the abdomen (T2-T4) are white, broad and situated along the hind rim of each segment (not set back from the rim). (2) The hair on the top of the thorax (on the scutum and scutellum) is dark, with an outline of long white hairs. (3) The hair on the mesepisternum (the side of the thorax) is entirely pale. There are, however, small patches of dark hairs near the pronotal lobes. (4) Hairs on the vertex (the top of the head, behind the eyes) are both light and dark. (5) The bee's clypeus is protuberant and pitted throughout. (The clypeus is the face-part above the mandibles.)

@jordan_kue

This is actually a new species of Aphonopelma that was discovered by Michael Jacobi (@michael_jacobi) and Dr. Brent E. Hendrixson in October 2019. Species is currently being described by Dr. Chris Hamilton; species name will be announced in his upcoming scientific publication. I also shot video since it was difficult to focus as it quickly scurried across the ground on a hillside that was badly burned in the 2011 Horseshoe 2 Fire.

FIRST CONFIRMED FLORIDA SIGHTING. I have never seen a moth like this one which looked more like a butterfly. It was so tiny that before zooming in, it looked like a junk bug as it crawled around on a weed beneath a fallen tree. I was only able to snap a few pictures before it flew away. Both photos, including the spread wings, the iNat identifier seemed to think were the Asian species Choreutis emplecta/sexfasciella, which has not been posted in the U.S. on iNat before (except for California), but looks very much like it.

Around 5pm today in the middle of the road. Large 3ft or more snake. Hisisng, loud, almost like a rattle noise. But no tail rattle. Defensive while I kept distance. Aggressive. Never took its eyes off me. Opened mouth often. No teeth. Black eyes. Black tongue. Large center. Moments prior a large barred owl flew past my windshield and watched me as I approached snake. An epic moment in my day. I was going to pick up my son who was with a native medicine woman.

Cropped and lightened picture as well as original. It was fairly high up in a sand pine.
I checked on the location very closely afterwards and we were in Putnam County, but just 100 yards or so, rather than in Marion County.
Also present; my wife, Lori Smith, and John & Ivy Gibbons.

Drama. These guys all normally get along pretty well, but here a squirrel decided to start something and nearly got kicked in the head as reward. Moments later they were back to munching sunflower seeds side-by-side again.