03 May 2012

Variegated Meadowhawks in Michigan

Today during lunch, I found a single Variegated Meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum) at my workplace in Farmington Hills, Michigan. I know this species has also been observed this spring in Ohio and Ontario this spring. Maybe this will the year to add this species to several Michigan County lists?

8 comments:

Cathy Carroll said...

Darrin, that is a completely beautiful dragonfly.

Cathy

Noushka said...

Can't wait to see the pics!! :)

Darrin OBrien said...

Nousha, unfortunately, I couldn't catch it since I was wearing work clothes at the muddy pond. I hope to find some today in an adjacent county. Hopefully, pictures will be taken. ;^)

Cathy, be on the lookout for any meadowhawk now...they're likely to be Variegated.

Matt said...

I sent you photo of one from a couple weeks ago in Berrien. Did you receive it?

I went back to the spot with a net but didn't come close (though did drop 2 pairs of sweetflag spreadwings in acetone). Berrien records 2-5 of them, first in a hundred years or so per the website. Not sure what to do with them now.

Matt

Darrin OBrien said...

Matt,
I didn't receive your email or at least didn't see it.
I'd suggest posting your ode photos to Odonata Central. Regarding the spreadwings, Sweetflag (L. forcipatus) would be extremely early. Could it be L. australis? We don't have many records in MI to know the true phenology. An ID hint http://homepage.mac.com/edlam/damselthumbspages/L_forcipatus.html . Of course, with the vouchers, we have a much better chance to confirm the species. I assume you'll submit the vouchers to the UMMZ?

Michael said...

Hi Darrin,

Had a trio of Variegated Meadowhawks today on the North Shore of Lake Superior - rare here for sure.

http://northshorenature.blogspot.ca/2012/05/meadowhawks-in-may-in-marathon.html

Cheers,

M

Matt said...

I see the reason you didn't get the email was that I sent it to Mark O'Brien. I re-sent it to Julie so hopefully you got it but haven't heard back. I couldn't figure out your email.

I captured a clubtail of some sort yesterday as well as some chipping and savannah sparrow level first county records yesterday. How long do they stay in acetone?

Darrin OBrien said...

@Michael....it seems the Variegateds just flew past here. I'm glad to see some ended up in your area.

@Matt...did you send the email to the Nannothemis account on the lower right hand area of the Urban Odes page?
We did a post on how to voucher odes here: http://mos-atlas.blogspot.com/p/how-to-submit-records.html