Hey-

We’re in Silver Springs, Florida, today.  Visiting our RV site at the Wilderness RV Park Estates.  We’ll be leaving our fifth-wheel here while we are in the Bahamas for a few weeks.

The Ocklawaha River, a part of the Cross Florida Greenway, formerly known from 1933 to 1990 as the Cross Florida Barge Canal, borders this RV park.  The Greenway runs 110 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to the St. Johns River.  Here is a photo of one of the wild critters that we encountered while hiking one of the trails in the Greenway.

“Cow Killer” or Red Velvet-Ant (Dasymutilla occidentalis)

These insects are wasps, not ants. Females are wingless and covered with dense hair, superficially resembling ants. The red velvet-ant is the largest velvet-ant species, reaching about 3/4 inch in length. They are black overall with patches of dense orange-red hair on the thorax and abdomen. Males are similar but have wings and cannot sting.

P&P

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