Pennant Races

In the summer baseball fans might find themselves watching with interest the pennant races; some naturalists might be watching an entirely different kind of pennant race. You see, by July the Halloween Pennants and the Calico Pennants will be racing after potential mates, racing after intended meals, and chasing away potential rivals; flying around rapidly is one of the most time-consuming activities for our pennants. (Admittedly perching on vegetation and looking for mates, prey, and rivals also takes up a lot of time.)

If my recollection is correct, I found both these dragonflies at Duke Farms Great Meadow, though the Halloween Pennants were mostly near Gingko Lane while the Calico Pennants were deeper into the meadow towards the Redbud trees leading to the Old Foundation. It's not clear that these are different habitats, so I suspect it's mostly just chance that the HPs picked one part of the meadow and the CPs picked the other. The Halloween Pennant is a bit bigger; I suspect they'd at least consider preying on Calico Pennants, though I don't know how likely that is.

Halloween Pennant
July 6, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 221314666, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


Calico Pennant
July 6, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 221316499, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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