Mocha Emerald

Here's another dragonfly I hadn't seen before, a Mocha Emerald. Or at least I'm believing the people on iNaturalist regarding this picture. 

In the past at Fairview Farm, I had seen large numbers of common odonates, and while I did see some of them on this July trip, I also encountered 2 species for the first time, the Fawn Darner from yesterday's post, and this Mocha Emerald. It's cool to see some new guys once in a while.

Not only was this my first Mocha Emerald picture, but it was my first emerald dragonfly of any species. This isn't an easy dragonfly to encounter; my field guide calls them "uncommon", NJ lists them as "imperiled", and Massachusetts considers them to be of "special concern". I don't think it's clear why they would be struggling compared to other odonates, though of course there are always going to be species that are more susceptible to loss of habitat and/or pesticides.

They get the emerald part of their name from the (frequently strikingly) green eyes of the adults, though juveniles can have brown eyes. From my picture, I'm assuming I encountered a juvenile. (There does appear to be a little bit of green on the forehead, which is also something you can expect to see on most emerald dragonflies.)

It also appears to be a female. The abdomen ends in was looks like a spike (actually a reproductive organ rather than a weapon), which is characteristic of female emeralds. As juveniles they usually hang out in the woods, though when it's time to breed she'll fly over to a stream and try and get the attention of a male who has staked out a territory there.

July 22, 2021 at Fairview Farm
Photo 148400898, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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