small pink and yellow moth, with a yellow furry body and pink antenna.
Mushroom found at 12:07 a.m. on Monday 09/04/2023. It is surrounded by grass by the doors of an apartment building.
Habitat: In the grass by an apartment building in Tampa, Florida.
Reference: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/328244-Psilocybe-cubensis
This is the Gopher Tortoise. It has a very dark brown carapace which allows it to be identified as a gopher tortoise. Observations on its pastron couldn't be made. This tortoise was found in Split Oak Forest. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the shell of an adult gopher tortoise is generally tan, brown, or gray in coloration. This implicates that the gopher tortoise observed would most likely be an adult.
Reference:
myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/reptiles/gopher-tortoise/
The organism has a shell on its back that is black and brown in coloration. The shell has yellow lines on the shell as well that forms repeating patterns of lines and a vertical line that runs down the middle of the shell. The organism has four limbs, a head, and a tail. These features of its body share the same skin that is scaly and brown with yellow dots. The mouth resembles a beak and the eyes are on the sides of the head, not like humans where it is in the front. The organism seems to measure about 9 inches from the tail to the head (vertically) and 4.5 inches in width. This can be categorized into the Reptilia class since all turtles belong to this class and this is clearly a turtle because of its characteristic hard, dome-shaped shell and beak-like mouth (Coleman, 2020). We can specify its scientific name to be Terrapene carolina bauri because of its distinct markings on its back that closely resemble the unique markings of the box turtle or Terrapene carolina bauri (Coleman, 2020). The organism was found on the outskirts of Lake Apopka near the water. This portion of the lake is located in a suburban neighborhood. We can infer that this is a Florida box turtle as these are most common box turtles found in the Florida state (National Geographic Society, 2020). The geographical distribution of the box turtle or Terrapene carolinus spans all across America and are an omnivorous species (National Geographic Society, 2020).
References:
National Geographic Society. “Florida Box Turtle.” National Geographic Society, admin.nationalgeographic.org/projects/photo-ark/animal/terrapene-carolina/.
Sheehy, Coleman. 2020. “Florida Turtles.” Florida Turtles :: Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/herpetology/florida-amphibians-reptiles/turtles/.