northeast-flora-and-fauna

A fair amount of the time when I see similar-looking creatures in the same picture they turn out to be of the same species, but in this case we have a Familiar Bluet (top) and a Skimming Bluet (below). Frequently I'll use the presence of a distinctive male bird to identify a far less distinctive but nearby female bird. And the dark bird among the European Starlings is usually ... another starling! But this isn't a perfect strategy. At a casual glance you might think these are the same species. You might even think that the extra blue on the top bluet is just natural variation. But there are times when these instincts lead you astray, and the odonate world is probably 1 of them. All damselflies and dragonflies lay eggs in water, so a good body of water frequently attracts multiple species, and at least some of them look similar. In our defense, sometimes the odonates themselves get confused; some of them will chase of "rivals" that don't really compete against t...

If all the IDs I got are correct [1], here are 3 different bluets I met last spring. Bluets are damselflies , and most of the time the males have some bright blue coloring. I will try and provide the rationale for these identifications: These damselflies are all about the same size, so even if they had agreed to be measured I might not be able to ID them from the measurement. The Skimming Bluet is 1.0-1.1", the Turquoise Bluet is 1.1-1.2", and the Slender Bluet is 1.2". And each of them has blue on abdominal segments S8-S9, which are the ones almost at the end. All these bluets are considered "common", so it wouldn't be surprising to see any of them in New Jersey. All of them are active in June. And although my field guide suggests that the Slender Bluet isn't in Somerset County, 1) They are known to be in the counties north and south of Somerset County, and 2) My field guide is from 2009, so it might not reflect the exact location of current popula...