(Today we have a beautiful guest post from my amazing mother who is an expert at photographing the beauty of nature. Enjoy!)
Clubtails & Snaketails & Emeralds & Sprites,
Jewelwings & Bluets & Pennants & Gliders,
Saddlebags & Pondhawks & Spinylegs & Skimmers!
Such delightful names for such an amazing group of insects -
THE ODONATES! Rivaling any North American songbird, the dragonflies & damselflies
of the mid-western United States display an endless spectrum
of riotous color and a portfolio of radical patterns. Their dizzying aerial
displays over open waters take the breath away and keep the head spinning! One
need not travel to the tropics to reveal nature's exotic side, just peer into your own aquatic backyard!
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| Halloween Pennants "In Wheel" (Dragonflies are the only insects that mate this way!) |
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| Eastern Pondhawk Female (The Males are Blue!) |
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| Eastern Amberwing Male Obelisking (i.e. lifting the abdomen to avoid overheating in the sun!) |
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| Springwater Dancer Male (A damselfly, rather than a dragonfly - note the wings folded over the abdomen, the eyes widely separated on the head, and you can't tell from the picture, but very tiny by comparison.) |
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| Calico Pennant Male (The male is red & the female is yellow. Both have abdominal markings that are perfectly shaped hearts!) |
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| Hine's Emerald Male (The only dragonfly federally listed as an Endangered Species & a mid-western speciality! Note the radical "claspers" at the end of the abdomen that he uses to grab and hold a female during mating.) |
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| Widow Skimmer Male (This beautiful species gives the impression of strobe lighting when fluttering its wings!) |
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| Carolina Saddlebags Male (Often much deeper red, this young, fresh individual nicely displays its namesake wing pigment patches!) |
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| Eastern Ringtail Male (These stunning dragons perch on rocks in the middle of riffles in medium-sized rivers waiting for females to come to the water.) |
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| Blue Dasher Male (Males jealously guard territories by perching on the tops of stems near the water's edge and flying sorties to roust other intruding males!) |
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American Rubyspot Male (A common, but gorgeous, river species of damselfly. The bright red basal spot on the wings are spectacular when in flight or displaying!)
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"I don't know exactly what a prayer is,
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
-Mary Oliver The Summer Day |
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