Old books and their stories

The Urban Dragon Hunters have been very busy. We've done relatively little field work the past couple of years, sadly, but both our field work and research has yielded interesting results which we will be sharing over the next weeks and months.

In the course of some of the research, very old literature was consulted, some of which I was lucky enough to inherit as duplicates or discards. One book, which I honestly never thought I'd have to look at or cite, was the Synopsis of the Neuroptera of North America by Hermann Hagen, published in 1861. You might recognize the name from Hagen's Bluet (Enallagma hageni) or being listed as the author (describer) of many species of dragonflies and damselflies.

My copy is discolored and sports some interesting stains that appear to be dried up mold growth.

Probably the main reason I haven't parted with this volume is that it once belonged to Clarence H. Kennedy, a prolific and accomplished entomologist whose name is memorialized, for example, in Kennedy's Emerald (Somatochlora kennedyi). Nick Donnelly wrote a short biography of Kennedy and his Odonata work in this issue of the Argia (PDF). Kennedy was close friends with an equally notable character, Edward Bruce Williamson, the curator of Odonata at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology from 1916-1933.

Kennedy was also a scientific illustrator, and designed several
of his own bookplates.

This book has marginalia here and there, and also had various notes and sketches tucked into its pages.

My favorite tidbit of history, though, comes from a penciled note at the back of the book. It reads, 

"This volume was lot from Stechart for $3.75
was soaked in the Galveston hurricane Aug. 20, 1915
was bound at Raleigh, N.C. Oct. 1918 for $1.50
C.H. Kennedy"

Below it was the note: "Robbers All!"

I believe the original purchase was part of a "lot" of books from the New York book dealer Stechert-Hafner. The hurricane reference certainly explains the condition of the pages. This hurricane (not to be confused with the more devastating Galveston hurricane of 1900) actually struck southwest of Galveston, TX on August 17, but remained a fearsome storm for days, resulting in heavy flooding in the Ozarks and beyond. At the time, Kennedy was working for Cornell prior to attending Stanford University, so I suspect the book endured the hurricane in the possession of a prior owner. As for the postscript on monetary value, it might have been Kennedy himself who wrote it. However, the book was later owned by Williamson; his stamp appears in several places. Thus, this little commentary may have been incribed by him.

I found the information I was looking for in this book, and so much more.

The mystery of baskettails

Since we are on the cusp of the dragonfly season here in southern Michigan, a quick note regarding the problem with Epitheca baskettails is timely. 

 

As it turns out, "common" baskettails in southern Michigan (and perhaps beyond, it's unknown until more are collected and examined) are not identifiable from photos, and often not in the hand. 

 

The Common Basketail (Epitheca cynosura) hybridizes with Slender Baskettails (Epitheca costalis, which used to be called Stripe-winged Baskettail), but northern populations show much variability in the amount of brown at the base of the wings, as do E. cynosura in this region. We've collected a lot of baskettails around here, and the majority of them are intermediate forms, as diagnosed by Nick Donnelly from NY who works on several cryptic/hybridizing/new species complexes. This probably indicates that the two species are hybrids and produce fertile offspring and, in turn, backcrosses.

The New Jersey Odes website, though inactive, has a nice comparison of Common versus Slender, while acknowledging that field identification is iffy, and the Minnesota Dragonfly website has some nice comparisons of Common, Spiny (E. spinigera) and Beaverpond (E. canis).

 

Other strange Epitheca's can be found. Here is a post we did (with a link to a short paper we wrote) on a Common Baskettail with extensive dark wing tips.

 

There is so much to understand regarding the status and distribution of this species complex in Michigan. More specimens are needed, especially across southern Michigan, for future researchers to go examine so that these mysteries can be unraveled.

Further reading:

Donnelly, N. [T. W.] 2001. Taxonomic problems with North American Odonate species -- a last appeal for information. Argia 13(2):5-10.

Donnelly, N. [T. W.] 2003. Problems with Tetragoneuria! Argia 14(4):10-11.

Donnelly, N. [T. W.] 2006. Rediscovery of Intergrade Epitheca in Southern Indiana. Argia 18(2):12-13. Scroll to page 12 and read this brief note -- it sums up the problem in the region nicely!

O'Brien, M. 2004. Epitheca costalis (Stripe-winged Baskettail) in Michigan: Update. Williamsonia 8(3):1-2. (PDF) 

O'Brien, M. 2005 How to identify Epitheca costalis. Williamsonia 9(1):7-9 (PDF)

New Michigan ode paper

 

Our paper on a significant new population of the state-threatened Pygmy Snaketail has just been published in the Journal of Insect Science (and is open access and available at the link):

Craves, J.A., D.S. O'Brien, and D.A. Marvin. 2020. New population of the rare dragonfly Ophiogomphus howei (Odonata: Gomphidae) in southern Michigan, United States. Journal of Insect Science, Volume 20, Issue 5, September 2020, 33, https://doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/ieaa125

The journal's sponsor, Entomological Society of America, published a nice write-up of the research on their website.

The mystery of meadowhawks, redux

I'm a RuWhiChee! Read more here.

In 2010, we posted about the difficulties presented in identifying many Sympetrums, especially in eastern North America. With the increasing popularity of dragonfly ID and photography, and posting same on social media and citizen science websites, we have updated our post with some new data and references. I'll repeat the bottom line here, and you can read more at the original posting:

Over most of eastern North America, the most common meadowhawk species (Ruby, White-faced, Cherry-faced, and Jane's) should not or cannot be identified to species from a photograph -- especially when immature. Often, they cannot even be identified to species in the hand because the structural characteristics of their genitalia are intermediate due to hybridization. In fact, DNA analysis has shown that some of these "species" may not be full species, or may still be undergoing speciation.

Alleghany River Cruiser persists

In 2014, Stylurus snagged one of several river cruisers at a site in southwest Michigan that proved to be Macromia alleghaniensis, Alleghany River Cruiser. Not only was this new for Michigan, but a little research indicated that it was the most northerly record for this species, as most other records north of 40 degrees were unconfirmed for various reasons, as described in the paper we published (available here).

Download a PDF of this paper here.

Despite multiple visits to the site in the intervening years, we (mostly he!) could not confirm that this species had a sustaining population at this site. Visits took place in mid-June to mid-July, and while he saw river cruisers there in 2016, he was could not net one to see what it was.

We stopped once again on 23 June this year, and were in luck when we saw river cruisers cruising this creek, the same place where the voucher was collected.

The two photos above show each side of the creek at a road crossing.
Water was much higher than in previous years.

The task of netting one was made a little easier when I stood on the road as the patrolling Macromia approached to cross the road to the other side. I could act as a spotter, and the dragonfly would usually turn back if it saw me standing there. In this way, Stylurus was able to net multiple river cruisers, all of which turned out to be M. alleghaniensis. Although we only saw one or two at a time, each time one was netted, another showed up (we held on to them until we were satisfied all were Alleghany before releasing all but two vouchers). We think there were at least 7 patrolling, and likely more. It was satisfying to know that this appears to be a healthy, sustaining population -- especially in a year with so much rain in spring and early summer that the creek was still running high.

I'm just posing here.

Identification and taxonomy of Macromias can be tricky (for a pretty thorough introduction, see Donnelly and Tennessen 1994). As with many ode identifications, structure trumps color pattern. One reliable character is the length of the mesotibial keel, a little "flange" on the middle leg, illustrated in this photo by Michael Moore. Much shorter on Alleghany than on similar M. illinoiensis.

Since our original discovery, a few other states have added this species to their lists after closer examinations of specimens. Two such revelations have been published in Argia: Brown and Thomas (2016) and Patten and Smith-Patten (2016). Links to all these resources are below.

Brown, G., and Thomas, M. 2016. Discovery of the Allegheny River Cruiser (Macromia alleghaniensis) in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Argia 28(2):9.

Donnelly, T. W., and K. J. Tennessen. 1994. Macromia illinoiensis and georgina: a study of their variation and apparent subspecific relationship (Odonata: Corduliidae). Bulletin of American Odonatology 2(3):27-61. 

Patten, M. A., and B. A. Smith-Patten. 2016. The Allegheny River Cruiser (Macromia alleghaniensis) in Oklahoma. Argia 28(3):12-14.