Epiaeschna breeding "hotspot"

While wandering around our swamp on June 29, 2013, we found an exuvia of a male Swamp Darner (Epiaeschna heros).  This is only the 3rd specimen of an exuvia of this species from Michigan, and more interestingly, the 2nd specimen from this location! (We found the 1st specimen while walking the property prior to our purchase last year.)

This exuvia was on the only cattail in the 1.5 acre swamp in our 11-acre property in Lodi Township.

Here's an early spring scene from March-2013 which gives an idea of the habitat:

The exuvia was found in the area on the right side of the image above.

Here's an adult female that was patrolling our old field on June 26th:

Let's hope she laid more eggs for exuviae to be found in future years.

Early Season Odes in Arizona

I spent a few days at the end of March, 2013, in Yuma, AZ at the Cocopah RV Park.  I knew there should be some ode potential since the season had been abnormally warm and water sources were present such as the Colorado River and ponds created by agricultural and/or golf course runoff.

 It wasn't the most attractive area, since Border Patrol had the reservation clear vegetation along the banks of the river.  However, it made access to the water's edge much easier.

The pockets of downed vegetation also provided shelter from the breeze/wind which made finding damselflies possible.  Most were teneral or young such as this one which appeared to be a male Blue-ringed Dancer (Argia sedula):

Others were a bit more mature such as this male of the same species:

Also, present were Familiar Bluets (Enallagma civile):

Patrolling the edges were a couple Common Green Darners (Anax junius):

There was a small boat launch which helped me with a bit more access to find a Rambur's Forktail (Ischnura ramburii):

... and a female American Rubypot (Hetaerina americana):

There were also a couple of ponds.  This one wasn't maintained and only filled with water when the farmer filled the ditch to irrigate his adjacent agricultural fields.

The Spot-winged Gliders (P. hymenaea) patrolled the edges, such as this male:

Closer to the golf course, were another couple of wet spots from sprinkler runoff.  Additional species were present, such as this female Desert Firetail  (Telebasis salva):

...and this Citrine Forktail (Ischnura hastata):

... and finally this digiscoped Western Pondhawk (Erythemis collocata):

This didn't turn out to be a large number of species, but seeing this variety was great considering this was as early as March 25th.

Finally -- The Odonata of Wayne County

After 10+ years of field work; months of literature searches and poking through old specimens; and a year or so of writing, editing, and post-production, our paper on the county odes has been published:

Craves, J. A.. and D. S. O’Brien. 2013. The Odonata of Wayne County, Michigan: Inspiration for renewed monitoring of urban areas. Northeastern Naturalist 20:341-362.

You'll find a checklist in a new tab at the top of the page here on Urban Dragon Hunters.

This is a great journal, and we encourage people to subscribe to get access to the whole paper, which includes, as the title indicates, justification and encouragement of insect monitoring in urban areas.

A Bit Distracted

Our 2012 field season was much abbreviated compared to a normal year.  Thus, we've had few (no) posts since July.  This was due to the activities involved with buying a house with acreage in rural Washtenaw County, Michigan. 

The property contains a good variety of habitats: conifers patches, hedgerows, grass lawn, old field, a seeded prairie (as of this fall), wet woods with vernal pools, and upland woods. 

Here's a view of a portion of the wet woods:

Unfortunately, we don't have a stream or large pond, but these features are present in the vicinity.  We did add all small water feature near the house that will likely be more attractive to thirsty or bathing birds.  We'll add some plants and may add a small pond to the feature in 2013.

There was one aquatic insect visitor prior to the frosts of fall.  This backswimmer (Notonecta irrorata)  showed up in October. A locust leave is next to it for a size comparison:

Given the little/no time for dragonfly hunting in the latter half of the summer, we did have one great discovery prior to the final purchase.  Back in June, while doing a walk around the property, we found the exuvia of a male Swamp Darner (Epiaeschna heros).  This is only one of two specimens we know of for Michigan.  It's unknown how often this species can successfully overwinter in our state.

2013 will be a year with more time available for exploring, although we'll do more hunting around our property since we have a great interest in documenting the flora and fauna of all varieties.  Our overall odonata list may be reduced, and we'll post some of the other bugs found around here.

Given the changes, maybe we'll need to change our name to Rural Dragon Hunters? 

Waiting on a "Friend"

On Sunday, July 8th, I decided to add Red Saddlebags (Tramea onusta) for Lenawee County since this is a year when this species has moved north in huge numbers.  Almost anyplace you find Black Saddlebags (T. lacerata) you have a good chance to see the smaller red cousin which acts like it wants to dominate the water's surface.

I ended up at a future business park outside of Tecumseh.  Roads were completed, but no businesses, yet.  The weedy fields provided upland areas for a variety of insects and birds such as: Vesper and Savannah Sparrows.  A large water retention basin provided habitat for a good variety of odes.  Almost immediately upon my arrival a Red Saddlebags (T. onusta) flew past just out of the net's reach.

A breeze was present so I positioned myself on the downwind side of the pond in hopes that sparring dragonflies would get pushed within reach of my net.   Unfortunately, there was no vegetation surrounding the basin so I couldn't conceal my presence... and the odes seemed to know why I was present.  Several individuals of T. onusta flew past, always out of the reach of my net.  Of course, the incline of the pool's edge prevented me from wading in.  The mud and steep slope would be too slippery.

Over the next hour, I walked the entire perimeter at least twice, but the total distance was likely four times that.  The best chances for capture occurred when a coupled pair worked against the breeze and other bachelors wanted in on the action.  However, they always were pushed towards the middle of the pond.

Later in the afternoon, I was making one last trip near the northern edge and an individual "checked me out".  This allowed me to "check him out":