Readers’ wildlife photos

May 25, 2025 • 8:15 am

Hey, folks, this is the penultimate batch of photos I have. Please send me more!

As it’s Sunday, we have photos from John Avise, continuing his series on dragonflies and damselflies of North America. John’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Dragonflies in North America, Part 6

This week I continue my series of posts on Dragonflies that I’ve photographed in North America.  I’ve gone down my list of species in alphabetical order by common name, and also show the state where I took each photo.  Next week, PCC(E) willing,  we’ll probably start a short series on Dragonflies’ close cousins, the Damselflies (also in the taxonomic Order Odonata).

Wandering Glider, Pantala flavescens, male (California):

White-faced Meadowhawk, Sympetrum obtrusum. male (Wisconsin):

White-faced Meadowhawk, another male (Michigan):

White-faced Meadowhawk, female (Wisconsin):

Widow Skimmer, Libellula luctuosa, male (Wisconsin):

Widow Skimmer, female (Wisconsin):

Yellow-legged Meadowhawk, Sympetrum vicinum, male  (Michigan):

Yellow-legged Meadowhawk, female (Michigan):

Yellow-legged Meadowhawk, mating pair, (Michigan):

10 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos”

  1. Very nice series! I notice that many species have dark or colored spots near their wing tips. Is this related to intraspecies identification, or does it give some other survival related advantage?

    1. The dark structures are called pterostigma – as in “stigmata”. They are an area of reinforcement in the wings, placed at a location so that they dampen harmonic vibrations during flight.

        1. Beautiful photos! Thank you for this information. I was wondering what the dark structures were.

  2. Very good! The Wandering Glider is a challenging species since they don’t seem inclined to land.

  3. These pictures remind me of the amazing beauty and diversity of nature that is around us all the time, and often unnoticed.

  4. Awesome pictures! Damselflies will be an excellent encore. Do beetles come after that?

  6. Splendid photos! I have to say I get almost equal pleasure from the evocative common names, like Meadowhawk and Wandering Glider. Looking forward to your Damselflies!

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