Immature Eight-spotted Skimmer

Here's a look at an immature male Eight-spotted Skimmer at Heart Lake in Anacortes:



Notice that the abdomen isn't pruinose bluish-white, as it is in adult males. In fact, at this age the male looks like a female, except for the white patches in the wing which are not present in the female.

In addition, the front legs are tucked up behind the head. This is a common way for dragonflies to relax when they are perched, and is also common in flying dragonflies.

Eight-spotted Skimmers are featured in my field guide, Common Dragonflies and Damselflies of the Pacific Coast. Check out the spread devoted to these beautiful dragonflies:



You can find the field guide at the following link:

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

This species is abundant at Heart Lake, and common at Little Cranberry Lake, as well.

ICO 2019: Five-striped Leaftail

Here's another species we saw on the trip to Texas for the International Congress on Odonatology (ICO) last July that we were not even aware before the trip—the Five-striped Leaftail. This male is perched on his favorite twig near the Guadalupe River in the town of Gonzales, TX:



The five stripes in the name refer to the five dark stripes on the side of the thorax, the fifth one being rather small and hard to see underneath the wings. The next photo shows the five stripes from a different angle:



The leaftail part of the name is more obvious, due to the shape of the tip of the abdomen. In the next picture, we see a male elevating his abdomen and expanding the "leaves" from either side of the abdomen.



Here's a closer look at this feature. Notice that the leaves were hanging downward in the first couple of photos.



This is an impressive dragonfly, especially when you consider that it has "moveable parts" on its abdomen—something you don't often see in dragonflies.

Popular Post

This post, about the Cherry Springs Nature Area, continues to be one of the most popular ones on this blog. Here it is again for those who might have missed it:

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.