dragonflies
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Odonata Days
Well, I’ve finally seen a damselfly this year. Yesterday, I saw exactly two at the Sylvan Water in Green-Wood. I didn’t have my camera with me, but I did find something to share with you. This is an exuvia, the shed husk of the underwater larval stage of damsel- and dragonflies. This one is a…
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Perch
Female Eastern Amberwing (Perithemis tenera).Male Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella)
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Maryland Monument Dasher
Two hundred and forty years ago today, the British and their Hessian swine-mercenaries walloped the still-loose conglomeration that was the Continental Army in Brooklyn. There’s a memorial in Prospect Park to the Maryland 400, troops who held the Old Stone House (the existing structure in J. J. Byrne Park is a recreation) down in the…
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Blue Dasher, White Tail
You have to get pretty close to see the white face on one of NYC’s most common dragonflies, the Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis). This is a male; as he gets older, his blue abdomen will get more powdery or chalkier looking. Such pruinescence, as it’s called, is caused by wax exuded from the animals’ cuticle.…
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Trio of Dragonflies
12-spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) male. Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia) male. Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis) male. What’s up with all the males? They’re patrolling territory, in this case the ponds of Green-Wood, while females generally only show up to these sites when they want to mate. Otherwise the females are over the fields and meadows, at…
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Seaside Dragonlet
This is a female Seaside Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax berenice), spotted recently on Plumb Beach. This is the only American species of dragonfly that breeds in salt water, in this case probably the saltwater marsh tucked behind the beach. To be honest, I couldn’t see any of the handsome orange and black patterning on the abdomen and…
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Migrating Gliders
You may wait a long time before one of these gliders comes to a stop. Both the Spot-winged (Pantala hymenaea) and Wandering Glider (Pantala flavescens) dragonflies seem to spend their whole working day in the air. These are the constantly moving yellow to golden dragonflies that are now being seen above our meadows and grassy…
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The Dragons Are Hunting
The shed exuvia of an Odonata. Dragon- and damselflies spend their larval stage underwater. These voraciously predatory nymphs climb up on reeds and other vertical structures, anchor themselves, and begin to break out and unfurl their wings, harden off, and then take to the air, leaving these ghostly husks behind.A male Eastern Amberwing (Perithemis tenera), our…
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Eastern Amberwing
Our smallest dragonfly species, the Eastern Amberwing (Perithemis tenera). This is a male. A female was also seen dipping her abdomen down into a lens of water atop a waterlily leaf, depositing her eggs. Blue Dashers, Green Darners, and Black Saddlebags were also about, but we certainly haven’t yet hit peak dragonfly.
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Meadowhawks
It was a bright, cool day at Great Swamp NWR on Saturday. Insect life was particularly subdued; it is almost December, after all. I saw a fly and heard a cricket. There were a few Autumn Meadowhawks (Sympetrum vicinum), though, and presumably they are eating something. Above is a male.Here’s a a female, not nearly…
Backyard and Beyond 