Bar-winged Skimmer

Okay, I have to admit this identification is a little shaky, but someone on iNaturalist suggested the Bar-winged Skimmer, and that looks like a reasonable choice. (I suspect this picture suffered through poor lighting, making some details like the stigmas and the wing bars difficult to see.) This is the first picture of this species I've taken.

They like to live near sunny, shallow pools of water, which limits their habitat since shallow water in full sunlight has the potential to dry out on them. Though this is probably the main reason they're not a common dragonfly to spot, it is a niche that they fill and most other competing dragonflies don't care for. Sometimes finding a niche like this is a pathway to evolutionary success. (On the other hand, it wasn't living too far from Calico Pennants, Widow Skimmers, Slaty Skimmers, and Eastern Pondhawks that I saw on this trip.)

One thing that I'm a little surprised about is that I don't have many pictures of dragonflies eating victims. I've certainly gotten pictures of mantises, spiders, and robber flies with prey, and odonates are considered to be one of the most successful predators in existence. I'm not sure why this is. I've heard that many of them will eat anything their size and smaller; perhaps the bulk of their meals are made up of arthropods that are so small that they finish eating them quickly.


July 23, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve
Photo 148592011, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

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