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)

These were pretty good pictures of a couple of our more common dragonflies. (I've talked about these dragonflies plenty of times before, but who doesn't appreciate a photogenic dragonfly?) Although both are males with much of the field marks of mature males, there's at least an inkling that they're slightly immature. If they're not mature enough to be out competing for the attention of lady dragonflies, they're really close. The 1st is a Widow Skimmer with wings that are black near the base, followed by a contrasting vivid white, then going clear (albeit with some veins) the rest of the way out on the wings. What I don't see though is white pruinose on the abdomen like you can see in the mature male in this picture . June 17, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 301010507, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) Next is an Eastern Pondhawk . Similar to the Widow Skimmer, you can tell the immature males from the mature ones based on pruinose, though in the case...

As with most gender-inspired species names, the names don't actually change with the gender, so this is a male Widow Skimmer and not a Widower Skimmer [1]. These are 1 of my favorite dragonflies : They'll perch so you can get a picture most of the time. The males are very distinctive with wings that are black near the base and (as they get older) with white patches before going translucent near the ends [2]. White pruinose on the abdomen is also frequently present as they get older, though not in the individual below. Though far from a griffinfly , they're big enough to spot if you're looking for this sort of animal. June 13, 2023 at Washington Valley Park Photo 300987064, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] Similarly, male Painted Lady and American Lady butterflies are not called Painted Gentlemen and American Gentlemen. [2] Despite their distinctiveness, I'm pretty sure I originally would confuse them with the Common Whitetail .

Here are a couple dragonflies I've talked about before , a Common Whitetail  (upper left) and a Widow Skimmer  (lower right), each perched next to one another overlooking a pond. They're both robust-looking dragonflies, and can look a little similar when the Widow Skimmer has more pruinose and thus has a while abdomen. (I suspect the Widow Skimmer is a little on the young side, and will eventually look whiter.) My recollection is that on this day there were a lot of dragonflies out there, mostly males flying back and forth, presumably trying to carve out an area that females will find appealing. But all that flying uses up energy, and so it's not uncommon for them to conserve energy by finding a perch where they can survey their territory. Though these guys are competitors for food, being separate species they don't compete for mates. Most of their aggression is spent on harassing/intimidating males of their own species, though occasionally they appear to have inter-spe...

I've mentioned in the past that the Common Whitetail was one of the 1st dragonflies I learned to recognize. Today's featured dragonfly - the Widow Skimmer - was probably one of the 1st dragonflies that I confused with the Common Whitetail. The males do have things in common: They're both robust-looking skimmer dragonflies. They both (when mature) have prominent white pruinose on their abdomens. They both have black spots on mostly translucent wings. And even though I could see that some of the dragonflies had wings with basal black spots rimmed with white while the other had black spots near the center of the wings, early on it was unclear whether these were variations within the same species versus different dragonflies entirely. Though the white on the wings indicates this is a male, there isn't a lot of white pruinose on the abdomen, suggesting this is a not-quite-mature male. (More discussion on males/females/juveniles is here .) June 8, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo ...

I remember when I first started taking pictures of wildlife, I encountered my first Widow Skimmer dragonfly and thought I was seeing another dragonfly I had learned about, the Common Whitetail . These dragonflies are about the same size, though the Widow Skimmer's wings can be a little longer. They both (in males) have a pruinose-white abdomen and have mostly translucent wings with prominent black spots. Nowadays I know that the location of the black spots on the wings are a significant difference, and that the white on the edges of the Widow Skimmer's black spots don't exist at all on the Common Whitetail. These dragonflies are fairly closely related, and both used to be in the Libellula genus before the Common Whitetail was reclassified into the Plathemis genus. (This sort of reclassification happens way more often than you might think, as we're constantly learning more about the flora and fauna around us.) Here's a Widow Skimmer, similar to who I saw those years...

I kind of like this picture of a Widow Skimmer . Most of my dragonfly pictures are from the rear (where you get a good look at the wings and abdomen) or the side (where you get a good side view of the abdomen-to-head but the wings sometimes disappear). In this one the dragonfly is showing the wings well yet we can also get a look at the face. Of course, this does have its limitations; the white pruinose is impossible to see. If only dragonflies were vainer, perhaps they'd let me get pictures from multiple angles. July 24, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 148594470, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Let's show you 3 Widow Skimmers today, all taken on the same day at the same place. The first picture is almost certainly a female; there's no trace of white bordering the basal black of the wings, and no sign of pruinose on the abdomen. (Apparently some females develop some pruinose later in life, though I'm not sure I've encountered one like that.) July 23, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 148592086, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) The second picture is clearly a male. You can see the white that basically borders the basal black on the wings, and the abdomen has enough pruinose that it looks nothing like the female abdomen. Many times I see even more white on the abdomen, so this guy may be on the young side but is at least a young adult. July 23, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 148592166, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) The third picture is of a younger male. You can see the white bordering the basal black of the wings, but...

Here are 3 dragonflies who are staking out basically the same territory. I almost got each of them into the picture. Left to right, I believe they are a Slaty Skimmer , a Blue Dasher , and a Widow Skimmer , and they're all males trying to stake out a territory. (Controlling a desirable territory seems to go a long way towards making a male dragonfly attractive to a female dragonfly.) When I took this picture, my assumption was that these 3 species would tolerate each other since they're different species and thus not competing for the same females. And there's probably some truth to this; it's hard to believe a male dragonfly can claim to be controlling a territory with rival males perched this close. But my copy of Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East  (Dennis Paulson) suggests things might not be peaceful for long. About Widow Skimmers it claims "aggressive to males of their own and other species", and about the Blue Dasher it says "also fiercely agg...

Let's show two of these guys today. They are a pair of Eastern Pondhawks I met about the same time a couple months back. The blue one is certainly a male. The green one is probably a female, though juvenile males of this species look an awful lot like females. As with many dragonflies, as the males age they become covered with pruinose, especially on the abdomen, but in Eastern Pondhawks you'll also see this on the thorax. In some species the pruinose is mostly white (like in Common Whitetails and Widow Skimmers), but in Eastern Pondhawks it's light blue. So while there's quite a bit of sexual dimorphism in mature Eastern Pondhawks, there's almost no sexual dimorphism amongst the juveniles. Finally, while it's possible that these 2 crazy kids might be a couple and have larvae together, it's at least possible the green one will eventually be a blue rival of the already-blue pondhawk. Presumed female Eastern Pondhawk June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve P...

Here's another Widow Skimmer dragonfly I met. If dragonflies were more cooperative photography subjects, I'd probably try to get a picture like this plus a spread-wing picture from above the dragonfly. This angle gives me a pretty good look at the eyes/face/thorax/abdomen, but it's harder to use the wings as identification here. Having said that, I suspect this is a young male. Though the abdomen coloring is consistent with a female, I think I see a little pale white on the wings. If so, that's probably the male's pruinose just starting to come in. June 17, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 141957941, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's one of our Widow Skimmer dragonflies. If this is a mature adult, she's a female; the male would have white patches just past the black on its wings. As with virtually all animals, the gender doesn't affect their name. The males are not called Widower Skimmers, just like male Painted Lady butterflies aren't Painted Gentlemen, and Belted Kingfisher female birds aren't Belted Queenfishers. This was the first photo I got this year of a Widow Skimmer, though later in the year I saw them quite a bit. (If you hate pictures of Widow Skimmers, you're going to have a rough time reading this blog over the next month or so.) June 5, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 136367992, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's another Widow Skimmer I met. With no white on the wing or tail ( pruinose ), it's presumably a female. She is a member of the skimmer dragonfly family , considered to be the largest dragonfly family, though some members of the family have surnames like Whitetail, Pondhawk, Meadowhawk, etc. This family generally exhibits sexual dimorphism , frequently due to pruinosity.  Don't be confused by the picture. If that was a bee or butterfly, it's likely that we'd be witnessing a pollinator at work. But for the predatory Widow Skimmer, this is just a place to perch. July 14 at Duke Farms

Here's a female Widow Skimmer . The wings aren't all that different from the males; you just need to subtract the white from the male's wings. The body looks fairly dissimilar though, being black with a yellow stripe that splits in two. You can compare her to yesterday's male Widow Skimmer . They're named Widow Skimmers not because all their males are dead but because, unlike many dragonflies, the females go off on their own after mating. Being alone, they were named "widows".

Here's another Widow Skimmer . You can't see a lot of body detail here, but the wing pattern is sufficient to identify this as a male Widow Skimmer. The hindwings start with a prominent black basal spot followed by a bright white spot and then ends with clear wings. The forewings are similar but the basal area starts clear before mimicking the hindwings. Sometimes common names suggest one gender or the other, leaving us with the confusing "male widow" terminology. Painted Lady butterflies are another example. Even more gender-confusingly, Widow Skimmers are considered to be in the group of dragonflies called King Skimmers . The females look differently, with gold stripes on the tail exhibiting yet another example of sexual dimorphism.