Species Spotlight: Red-veined Meadowhawk

We've been seeing the Red-veined Meadowhawk recently at Smiley's Bottom here in Anacortes. In fact, Smiley's Bottom is the only place we've ever seen the Red-veined Meadowhawk. It's an interesting species, but not widespread.

The Red-veined Meadowhawk can be mistaken for the Cardinal Meadowhawk. After all, it has white spots on the sides of the thorax like the Cardinal Meadowhawk, as well as some red in the wings. Here's a look at a male Red-veined Meadowhawk:



You can just see a white spot on the thorax under the wings—there are two white spots on either side of the thorax, but it's hard to get a good look at them through the wings. In addition, notice the black markings along the sides of the abdomen. These features are pointed out below:



For comparison, let's take a look at the Cardinal Meadowhawk. Here's a male, showing the pure red abdomen and a white spot on the thorax:



Perhaps the best distinguishing feature is the dark red parch on the wings near the base in the Cardinal Meadowhaw. This is shown below:



This dark red, opaque patch is unique to the Cardinal Meadowhawk.

It's not surprising that humans sometimes mix up these two species—they seem to do that themselves. In the following photo we see a male Red-veined Meadowhawk in tandem with a female Cardinal Meadowhawk:



The following photo shows the more typical situation—a male Red-veined Meadowhawk attached to a female of the same species:



This species lays eggs as the pair hovers in tandem, with the female flicking out one or two eggs at a time. The eggs, which look like small grains of rice, tumble down into the vegetation and onto the ground. It's interesting to note that the ground is dry when the eggs are deposited, but is underwater when the Fall rains return.

You can find out more about this species and others in Common Dragonflies and Damselflies of the Pacific Coast.

My Best Compliment Ever!

Last weekend we attended a birthday party, with lots of young nieces and nephews in attendance. At the party, I was told that my niece's favorite book—at the moment anyway—is my field guide, Common Dragonflies and Damselflies of the Pacific Coast. She really surprised me when she started talking about darners, and the happy-face dragonfly. She knows that the happy-face is a darner, but that there are other darners who aren't the happy-face dragonfly.



My niece loves looking at all the pretty pictures in the book. She and Betsy spent some time counting the spots on the Eight-spotted and Twelve-spotted Skimmers. And she especially likes the picture of all the Autumn Meadowhawks perched on my legs, and the pictures of dragonflies on my fingers. She wants me to show her some dragonflies in real life, so we'll have to do that soon.

Here's a link to the field guide on Amazon:

Field Guide

You'll find some nice compliments there as well, but none that to compare with the one from my niece.

Heart Lake

I went to Heart Lake in Anacortes a couple days ago, and the dragonfly activity was at a high level—dragonflies everywhere, with lots of egg-laying behavior on display. There were also some newcomers for the year, including the Cardinal Meadowhawk and the Eight-spotted Skimmer.

Here's a Cardinal Meadowhawk perched near the egg-laying area:



This guy's is looking up, checking out his surroundings. Notice that his abdomen is broad and flat, as is typical of this species. Here's another individual on his favorite leaf:



You can just barely see one of the white spots on the side of the thorax, one of the field marks for this species. Also, notice that the abdomen is fringed with yellow, indicating this is a young male. The abdomen starts off yellow, and turns bright red with age. This individual is just at the end of this transition.

Most of the egg laying was being done by the Cardinal Meadowhawks. Here is a couple dipping into the water to deposit a small mass of eggs:



This is a frame capture from a video, and in the video itself you can see the egg mass dropped off by the female, which then slowly sinks to the bottom.  Sometimes there were a couple pairs laying eggs at the same time:



Another common species along the shore was the Dot-tailed Whiteface. A number of pairs were seen in the wheel position, though I didn't see any egg laying. Here's a male perched on the ground:



This was also the first day I've seen the Eight-spotted Skimmer in Anacortes. Here's a young male on his favorite perch in the bushes:



It's clear this is a male from the white spots in the wings. Notice, however, that it's a young male because the abdomen still looks like the abdomen of a female, with straight yellow side stripes. As it matures, the abdomen will turn a lovely pruinose blue.

Species Spotlight: Spiny Baskettail—New for Anacortes!

A couple days ago, Betsy and I went to Cranberry Lake to see how dragonfly season was progressing. The activity was high, especially among Pacific Forktails and Four-spotted Skimmers. This was discussed in a previous post:

http://thedragonflywhisperer.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-flurry-of-forktails.html.

We also saw some American Emeralds, which are always fun to see because they are fairly uncommon and have a short flight season. We saw one land in a tree, and another in the grass. The one in the tree was indeed an American Emerald. See the following post for more information on this species:

http://thedragonflywhisperer.blogspot.com/2017/01/species-spotlight-american-emerald.html

It turns out that the one in the grass was actually something completely different. Here's a look at it:



This is clearly a baskettail—and a female at that, judging from how stocky the abdomen is near the base, where it joins onto the thorax. Notice a projection extending downward near the tip of the abdomen, which is enlarged in the next shot:



This projection, or "genital plate" as it is called, is used to hold an egg mass produced by the female. Here's a female we saw in Oregon a couple years ago in the process of making a large egg mass at the tip of her abdomen:



Once she has a good-sized egg mass she flies over the water, diligently looking for a fish-free place to drop it off. The egg mass in this picture was dropped off in this way, but even with all the precautions taken by the female the eggs were gobbled up immediately by a waiting fish. We saw dragonflies at Cranberry Lake with prominent egg masses, but had never seen one close up before to determine the species.

Here's a better look at our new species:



The identification is a little tricky because we're dealing with a female, but there are basically two possibilities—a Spiny Baskettail or a Beaverpond Baskettail. If we had a male the call is easy, because the Spiny male has simple appendages, whereas the Beaverpond male has pistol-shaped appendages. The females of both species have simple appendages, however, so this nice field mark can't be used. Instead, we note the color along the back border of the head. In this individual it is black, as is pointed out in the following photo:



This border area would be yellow in a Beaverpond Baskettail female.

All in all, we were pleasantly surprised to find this new species at our familiar lake:



You never know what you're going to find when you go out into the field!

For more information on basketballs, emeralds, and many other west coast species, check out my field guide at the following link:

https://www.amazon.com/Common-Dragonflies-Damselflies-Pacific-Coast/dp/1934199265/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528046279&sr=8-1&keywords=dragonflies+pacific

Species Spotlight: The Great Blue Skimmer

We've all heard of the Great Blue Heron. Well, there's a "great blue" in the dragonfly world as well—the Great Blue Skimmer.

As it's name suggests, it's a skimmer that is large, and conspicuously blue. We saw one for the first time on our recent trip to the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge near Virginia Beach, VA. Here's a look at it from above:



Notice the large black stigmas that merge into a black fringe at the tip of the wings.

From the front, the brilliant white face of this species is on full display:



All in all, a lovely dragonfly to add to our life list. Too bad we won't be seeing any of them on the west coast.

A Flurry of Forktails

Betsy and I went to Cranberry Lake here in Anacortes for our first visit of the 2018 dragonfly season. The activity was intense, with lots of Four-spotted Skimmers zipping around, landing on the path, mating, and laying eggs. Here's an example of a Four-spotted Skimmer:



Notice the four dark spots on the center of the leading edges of the wings—these are the four spots in the name. The dark spots near the tip of the wing are the stigma, which all dragonflies possess, and hence are not distinguishing features. Finally, note the dark wings patches near the base of the hindwings with the white veins, a distinctive feature of this species.

Four-spotted Skimmers are also quite friendly and approachable dragonflies; they can be whispered for a closer look:



We also saw California Darners, American Emeralds and Spiny Baskettails—more about the baskettails in another post to follow.

There were lots of Pacific Forktails out and about today as well. In fact, there was one rock where they liked to congregate—forktail flats. Here's a look at seven of them enjoying the sunny day.



Here's a little closer look:



Notice the mix of males and females in this photo.

All in all, a lovely day at the lake.

Cherry Springs Revisted

Note: Over the years, this post from September 4, 2013 has been one of the most popular on the blog. I thought I would re-post it so more people will have a chance to see what it's all about. I still hope to get to Cherry Springs Nature Area one of these days.

Not long ago, I was contacted by naturalist Sheri Covert at the Cherry Springs nature area near Pocatello, Idaho. She was putting together an interpretive sign to inform visitors about some of the interesting insect life to be found there, and asked if she could use a couple of my dragonfly pictures. I was happy to help with a project like that, and supplied her with pictures of the species she was looking for. Here's a rough draft of the sign, which looks very nice.

Here's an enlargement of the dragonfly section:

I look forward to visiting Cherry Springs one of these days. If any of my intrepid readers gets there first, please take a picture of the sign in place and we'll include it in the blog.

You can learn more about the species featured on the Cherry Springs Interpretive Sign in my new field guide, Common Dragonflies and Damselflies of the Pacific Coast. You can see more about it at the following link to Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1934199265/ref=s9u_simh_gw_i1?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pd_rd_i=1934199265&pd_rd_r=4Q8FNWQMZKPZ7GYWQB31&pd_rd_w=c79uB&pd_rd_wg=lb3xg&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=038QHD1N13Z2D7NWAP1Q&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=1cf9d009-399c-49e1-901a-7b8786e59436&pf_rd_i=desktop

Look for the River Jewelwing on page 132, the Northern/Boreal Bluet on page 150, the Eight-spotted Skimmer on page 88, the Blue Dasher on page 120, and the Blue-eyed Darner on page 56.