ICO 2019: Thornbush Dasher

Here's a species whose name we weren't even aware of before running into one of them in Texas. We went to the Southeast Metro Park near the Austin Airport, where there's a nice pond populated with lots of dragonflies. We spotted a small, cute dragonfly, and immediately recognized it as a new species for us.

Heres' the individual we saw:



It looks a lot like an immature male Blue Dasher on the head and thorax, but the abdomen is quite different, with a distinctive row of cream spots, culminating in a pair of large spots on segment 7.

This species is known for drooping its wings and raising its abdomen in an obelisk pose when perched. Here he is taking a look at me from under his dorsal fovea.



This is a small dragonfly, and quite inconspicuous in the brush along the shore.



How nice to find a species we didn't even know existed before!