northeast-flora-and-fauna

Considering it's National Dragonfly Day , I wanted to share a dragonfly picture. And at Duke Farms today: There be dragons , though not in the Medieval sense of dangerous territory. Instead we staked out a bridge where we could show off a bunch of dragonflies to the visitors. Though no Calico Pennants showed up at this particular site, there were a few hanging out in the meadows. Instead though we got to see Blue Dashers , Eastern Pondhawks , Widow Skimmers , Slaty Skimmers , and Eastern Amberwings , plenty of dragonflies to entertain the passersby. We got to see a little dragonfly breeding, quite a bit of dragonfly egg-laying, and hundreds of aerial skirmishes as aggressive males attempted to acquire territory. July 11, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 301278114, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

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 s...

Here's someone I don't think I've seen before, or if I did I was unable to get a picture of it. The latter is probably more likely, since my field guide says the  Carolina Saddlebags  is "common", and also mentions that saddlebags don't perch much but instead spend a lot of time zipping around in the air. Despite zipping around, these largish bright red dragonflies are likely to get your attention. They get the "saddlebags" part of their name from the large (in this case red) basal spot on the hind wings, which made it look like (to someone familiar with horses) the dragonfly had saddlebags . (In actuality dragonflies have few possessions, and thus no need for a saddlebag with which to carry them.) There is a very similar saddlebags dragonfly, the Red Saddlebags, that's occasionally seen in the southern tip of New Jersey. Even though this dragonfly would be out of range in Hillsborough, there are reasons to believe this is the Carolina Saddlebag...

Today I've got both a Halloween Pennant and a Calico Pennant for you. Pennants are a genus of dragonflies that by being colorful and (frequently) perching on blades of blowing grass blades somewhat resemble pennants . This first one is a female Calico Pennant, holding onto one of those forementioned blades of grass. She's got large black-and-yellow basal spots on the hind wings, smaller black spots on the tips of the wings and partial spots closer to the abdomen. She'll be looking for a male, who has basically similar markings except he'll be red where she's yellow. July 23, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 148592226, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) The second one is a Halloween Pennant. In comparison to the Calicos, they tend to have complete dark bands on their wings rather than spots. There's supposed to be a slightly orangish tinge to the translucent parts of the wing, and as orange is a Halloween color they are named after that holi...

A couple days ago I showed a male Calico Pennant ; later in the day I got this picture of a female Calico Pennant . This is yet another species that shows sexual dimorphism, in this case with the coloring clearly distinguishing the males from the females. In some cases this means flashy, colorful males and drab, subdued coloring in the females. While the female Calico Pennants aren't as eye-catching as their red male counterparts, you could argue that the yellowish-gold coloring of the females is also fairly good-looking. The markings (wing spots, stigmas, thorax/abdomen patterns) are extremely similar between the males and the females; the color difference is the easiest way to tell them apart. Incidentally, the stigmas (in this case the yellow patch near the end of the wings) weigh more than most of the wing, and can function as a vibration dampener on the fast-flapping wings. June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141958682, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-N...

Here's (presumably) a Calico Pennant that I met back in June. It's got a lot of Calico Pennant characteristics: A black abdomen with red marks on it. A reddish face. Mostly veiny wings with light red stigmas near the end of the wings. And maybe most important, near the base of the rear wings there is an amber spot surrounded by a darker brown spot. But it does have a couple characteristics I don't usually see in a Calico Pennant. Mostly I would have expected to see brown areas at the end of each wing. The almost complete absence of these brown spots is unusual in a Calico. Normally I'd wonder if this was a young Calico, and the wing ends would brown up as it gets older, but a young Calico is supposed to have a yellow face.  So while I'm fairly sure this is a Calico Pennant, I have to admit that this isn't quite a classic look for them. June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141958221, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Meet a Halloween Pennant . This is an adult male; you can see traces of red going down the top of the abdomen. You can compare it with this one that looks to be a female. The Calico Pennant (a related dragonfly) looks similar, but do you see the bands near the end of the wings? On the Calico Pennant this would look more like a spot at the very end of the wings. Though both these dragonflies are considered common according to my field guide, I've spotted the Halloween more often: 12 Halloweens to 4 Calicos.  August 18, 2020 at Duke Farms

Here's a Calico Pennant I met. They have mostly clear wings with large patches near the body (basal spots). You can't see the red triangles/hearts going down their back, but they're there. The ends of the wings are dark, and there are smaller marks about halfway from the end. (This description is only true for the males.) Apparently there are "aberrant" males. If you run across one of them ... the identification is going to be tougher. Here's a bit about the Calico Pennant (plus their relations) from the Bug Lady.