Two more Wayne County records

In 2023, I described that after a long period of no new Wayne County records (due in large part to our moving out of the county), we discovered a nymph of Springtime Darner (Basiaeschna janata) from 1971 in the University of Michigan collection. Later that year, we identified two nymphs of Laura's Clubtail (Stylurus laurae) from 2015 in samples collected by Sue Thompson of the Wayne County Dept. of Public Services. That ticked up the number of confirmed species from Wayne County to 92.

In August 2025, I wrote about 4 new species added to the Wayne County checklist. Three were adults, with vouchers added to the MSU collection: Blue-faced Meadowhawk (Sympetrum ambiguum), Black-shouldered Spinyleg (Dromogomphus spinosus), and Swift River Cruiser (Macromia illinoiensis). The fourth, Taiga Bluet (Coenagrion resolutum), was a specimen from 1879 (!) found at the Florida State Collection of Arthropods. These boosted the Wayne County list to 96.You can read all about these additions here.

We have since added two more species, verified with specimens. 

In late 2025, we found two nymphs of Turquoise Bluet (Enallagma divagans) in watershed sampling collections. The first was from a sample taken from the Lower Rouge River in Westland by Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) in September 2025. EGLE samples all the states major watersheds in 5-year cycles, and Stylurus (Darrin) has been identifying Odonata nymphs in these sample for 4 years now. The other nymph was from the Middle Rouge River in Livonia, another great find in a sample by Sue Thompson, in October 2025. 

Turquiose Bluet was a species listed in our 2013 paper on the Odonata of Wayne County as a suspicious literature record. It had been reported from Livonia by Tokihiro Nishida in his 1999 paper* from late July 1995. Of the 59 adult Michigan specimens in our database, the latest date we have of this typically early-season species is 4 July, so we did not include it in our totals. We've looked for them many times in the county, including along the Rouge. The two nymphs from 2025 are now in the MSU collection, and brought the Wayne County list to 97.

Just recently, on 26 July, Darrin was at Willow Metropark looking for several species in the Huron River. He was able to collect a male Dusky Dancer (Argia translata, below). 

In 2019, we collected the first state record of Dusky Dancer in Washtenaw County, also on the Huron River. This is a sort of enigmatic species -- it seems like it should be found more often, and doesn't appear to have any special habitat affinities, but although we keep an eye out for it, we've only found them in one other county (Monroe). This male voucher will be placed in the MSU collection.

The Wayne County list is now at 98 species.

---- 

*Nishida, T. 1999. The Odonata collected in the United States of America, mainly in theState of Michigan. Aeschna 36:1–20.