Species Spotlight: Spot-winged Glider

Well, it seems only appropriate that the Spot-winged Glider should have a turn in the "spot"-light.

Betsy and I made a number of observations of this species on our recent trip to the East coast. Our first sightings were at the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge near Virginia Beach, VA. We saw many of these dragonflies at the refuge, where they were immediately identifiable by the small dark spots next to the abdomen on the hindwings. Here's a look at one:



The dark spots are small, but they're clearly visible in flight as the dragonflies zip by. Here's another look at the spots:



At Back Bay, we saw a pair in tandem dipping repeatedly as the female deposited eggs in a small mud puddle, maybe 6 feet square. The next day we returned to the same spot, to look for interesting birds, and noticed that the puddle had dried up. This species is known for laying eggs in temporary bodies of water that are free of fish, and small puddles are one example. Presumably, the eggs can survive out of water until Fall rains return to fill the puddles for a longer period of time—or perhaps this is just one example of egg laying in inappropriate locations that simply won't support the next generation.

Another example of inappropriate egg laying was observed on our second trip, this time to Cape Cod, where we again saw Spot-winged Gliders. In this case, we observed female Spot-winged Gliders laying eggs repeatedly on the hood of cars in the parking lot of a wildlife refuge. This is know behavior for this species. Presumably, the polarized reflected light from the car hoods make the females treat the surfaces as being pools of water. We saw the females make many dips onto the hoods, and a number of eggs were deposited. Here's a photo of one of the hoods. The tiny yellow spots are Spot-winged Glider eggs:



Here's a closer look at one cluster of eggs:



The dragonflies were so determined to lay eggs on the cars that they were even doing so as the cars moved about in the parking lot. I've read that in the Middle East they like to lay eggs in pools of oil, which apparently give even stronger reflections of polarized light. Lots of strange things are going on out there in our world.

Glider Glade at the Gilbert Water Ranch, Part II

As mentioned in the previous post, Glider Glade is also a good place to look for Spot-winged Gliders.  These dragonflies look a lot like Wandering Gliders – after all, they have the same general body shape and large wings – but the Spot-winged Gliders differ in having a duller, grayish brown body, and small dark spots on the hindwings close to the abdomen.  The spots can be hard to see, but show up nicely when one of these gliders flies overhead.

Here's a Spot-winged Glider, happily perched in Glider Glade.

Spot-winged Glider.

Do you see the small dark spot on the hindwing?  There's another even smaller dark spot in front of the main spot, but the main spot is the one you look for in the field.  Here's a little closer look at this individual.

A view from above shows the spots a bit better.  The next photo shows the main two dark spots.  They are so close to the abdomen, however, that they can be hard to see.  The one in the hindwing closest to us is an example of how the spot can almost disappear against the abdomen.

Here's a different individual, giving a better look at the dark spots.

Spot-winged Gliders are uncommon in the Pacific Northwest, but Betsy and I did see one and photograph it at Magnuson Park in July 2012.  Here are the relevant links:

http://thedragonflywhisperer.blogspot.com/2013/08/dragonfly-field-trip-august-25-or-25.html

http://thedragonflywhisperer.blogspot.com/2012/07/spot-winged-gliders.html

Dragonfly Field Trip, August 24 or 25

Greetings Dragonfliers,

Let's try for a dragonfly field trip next weekend.  We'll shoot for Saturday, August 24, or Sunday, August 25, depending on which is predicted to have the better weather.

The trip will be at Magnuson Park in North Seattle, which is a great location for dragonfly activity.

Details will be posted next week, but I just wanted to give everyone an advance heads-up to start thinking about dragonflies.

Last year we saw a couple Spot-winged Gliders at Magnuson Park, which is quite an extraordinary dragonfly to see in this area.  Will they appear again this year?

A male (notice the hamules under segment 2 of the abdomen) Spot-winged Glider at Magnuson Park last year.

The same individual, this time with a better view of the spots on the hindwing that give this dragonfly it's name.

More details on the Spot-winged Glider at Magnuson Park can be found at the following post:

http://thedragonflywhisperer.blogspot.com/2012/07/spot-winged-gliders.html

Also, check out a spoof movie trailer for the Happy-face Dragonfly at this post:

http://thedragonflywhisperer.blogspot.com/2013/08/happy-face-dragonfly-trailer.html

Spot-winged Glider At Magnuson Park

The Spot-winged Glider is one a relatively small number of dragonflies known to migrate, along with the Wandering Glider, Variegated Meadowhawk, and Black Saddlebags, to name a few others.  They are well equipped for long-distance flights with their wide hindwings that stretch for almost half the length of their abdomen.  The key field mark for this dragonfly, as indicated in their common name, is a dark spot on each hindwing near the abdomen.

We've only seen this dragonfly once or twice before, and those observations were in Arizona.  Our first sighting was at the Gilbert Water Ranch in Gilbert, AZ.  We saw an unusual dragonfly flying and flying, but with persistence we finally saw it land.  It stayed put long enough for a few pictures for identification before it took off never to be seen again.  We may have seen another in Cottonwood, AZ, but it never landed and didn't come close enough for a positive ID.

We were quite surprised, then, to see a Spot-winged Glider whizzing past us at Magnuson Park in Seattle, WA late in July.  It had the look of a glider – similar to the more common Wandering Glider, but darker and more reddish – and as we watched it fly by a couple times we finally got a good look at its spots.  Knowing this was an unusual sighting, we wanted to have photographic documentation, so we watched it carefully until it landed for us.  Below are a few pictures I got that show it was a male Spot-winged Glider.  The pictures aren't great, but they document this unusual sighting.

The Spot-winged Glider finally landed for us, though in a fenced off area where we couldn't get very close.  Notice the hamules on segment 2 of the abdomen, indicating that this individual is a male, and the dark spot on the hindwing.

From some angles, the spots on the hindwings can be a bit hard to see since they are so close to the abdomen.

A better look at the spots here.  Notice also the great width of the hindwing, almost half the length of the abdomen.

We saw a Spot-winged Glider land at a different location a few minutes later.  It may have been the same individual.  From this angle you can see the beautiful red of the eyes, which is quite apparent even in flight.

We were curious to see just how unusual it is to see a Spot-winged Glider in this part of the country.  Checking with Dennis Paulson we discovered that he has seen the Spot-winged Glider in King County only once before – he saw a single individual fly by and disappear at Magnuson Park two years ago.  We also checked with the new field guide Dragonflies and Damselflies of Oregon by Kerst and Gordon.  They state the following:

We have one photographic record of this rare dragonfly from 2001, hanging up in a flower garden in the Friendly neighborhood in Eugene.

The only other reported sighting in Oregon was in Medford in 2009.

We're glad we were able to get photos of this individual, and that Dennis also saw and photographed it when he visited the park the next day.  You just never know what you're going to encounter when you go out into the field.