John Avise has started a new Sunday series: photos of dragonflies and damselflies. John’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
Dragonflies in North America, Part 1
This week I begin a series of posts on Dragonflies and Damselflies (taxonomic Order Odonata) that I’ve photographed in North America. I will go down my list of species in alphabetical order by common name. I also show the state where I took each photo.
Band-winged Dragonlet, Erythrodiplax umbrata, male (Florida):
Band-winged Dragonlet, female of the brown form (Florida):
Band-winged Dragonlet, young male (Florida):
Black Saddlebags, Tramea lacerata, male (California):
Black Saddlebags, female (California):
Blue Corporal, Ladona deplanata, female (Georgia):
Blue Dasher, Pachydiplax longipennis, male (California):
Blue Dasher, female (California):
Blue-eyed Darner, Aeshna multicolor, male (California):
Blue-eyed Darner, male in flight (California):
Blue-eyed Darner, female (California):
Blue-eyed Darner, mating pair (California):
Holy cow! I am going to so enjoy this series!!
The first thing I thought of when I saw this post is that Mark will be happy!
Beautiful set! Thanks! I’m just amazed by such gorgeous wings.
I had always heard that dragonflies’ speed and maneuverability put them out of reach of predators and that they had no natural enemies. Any truth to this?
I’ve seen flycatchers and other birds eating dragonflies, so the latter are certainly not immune to predation.
Dragonflies also hunt other dragonflies. They definitely don’t just go after mosquitos!
The best field guide for identifying dragonflies in North America is Ed Lam’s recent book published by Princeton Press https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691232874/dragonflies-of-north-america.
It features full page detailed paintings to illustrate the field marks of each species. The illustrations are simply magnificent.
Ah yes: Odonates! The Blue-eyed Darners are so cool, and the pictures are excellent. When we lived on Orcas Island, there were hundreds of Blue-eyed Darners that patrolled our hill slope in summer. When it was warm and sunny, the dragonflies went on the prowl.
Thank you John. Dragonflies have always amazed me, appearing to be so fragile and delicate, yet they survive. And the word on the street (trail) is that they feast on mosquitos.
Perfect new theme – looking forward to more.
Nice collection!
I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t know dragonflies ate mosquitoes. Another reason to love them. As with bees and butterflies, I see far fewer dragonflies these days. The past 2-3 years this has been eerily so. I can’t get over the lack of insects flying about. It’s troubling. The mating pair is a great photo! This will be a fun series.
Each one (the insect itself, and the photo) is such a gem! And the flight shot is just amazing. Looking forward to many more.
their numbers have crashed around me in cen KY the last few years. As with many insects, and those that eat them, like bullfrogs, toads, whip-poor-wills and chuck-wills-widows. It used to be hard to sleep with the w-p-w noise back in the day, zero last year.