A Darner In The Bush Is Worth Two In The Hand

A couple days ago there was a brief break in our autumnal rains, and I took advantage of it by zipping up to Cranberry Lake for a few minutes.  It was cool there, 55 ˚F, and breezy – only a bit of sun filtered through the clouds.  Still, five or six darners were flying over the water and checking for females along the shoreline.  In addition, six or seven darners were perched in the bushes, perhaps hoping for a little more sun, and a few Autumn Meadowhawks were perched on the ground.

I decided to do some dragonfly whispering.  I went up to one of the Happy-face Darners (Paddle-tailed Darner) in the bushes and lifted him onto my finger.  Remember that this was a "free-range dragonfly", completely free to take wing at any time.  It had never been caught or manipulated in any way – I simply lifted it up on my finger, which took the place of a branch.  Here's what he looked like as he sat happily on my hand.

A male Happy-face Darner (Paddle-tailed Darner) resting on my hand.  Such a charming fellow.  (The white spots on the eyes are reflections of the Sun.)

Here are a couple more photos of him.  If you toggle back and forth between the photos you'll get an idea of what it looks like as he cocks his head.

After the darner flew off to go about his busy day, I decided to lift another Happy-face Darner onto one finger, and then while he was going along for the ride, lift a Shadow Darner onto a second finger.  This makes for a nice comparison between these two similar species.  Again, remember these are "free-range dragonflies".

A male Happy-face Darner (Paddle-tailed Darner) on the left, and a male Shadow Darner on the right.  The Happy-face has blue on the tenth segment of its abdomen, but the Shadow Darner's tenth segment is black.  In addition, the blue spots are large, and actually get a bit larger, as you go toward the end of the Happy-face abdomen.  In the Shadow Darner, the blue spots get smaller and eventually disappear altogether.

Here's another view.  In this case, notice the top of segment 2 of the abdomen.  For orientation, segment 3 is the one that is narrow – almost like a wasp waist.  Segment 2 is the large, bulbous segment that is closer to the thorax.  On the top of this segment, the dorsal surface, there is a blue stripe in both species.  The blue stripe on the Happy-face Darner is thin and uniform in width.  In contract, the blue dorsal stripe on the Shadow Darner is broad and nonuniform.  It looks a bit like a chess piece, or the profile of a tree.

Happy-face Darner (left) and Shadow Darner (right).  Notice the difference in the blue dorsal stripe on segment 2 of the abdomen.  It is thin and uniform in the Happy-face, broad and nonuniform in the Shadow.

The blue dorsal stripe on segment 2 is a field mark that I haven't seen mentioned in any of the field guides, but I find it quite helpful.  I often see a darner in the bushes, and a leaf blocks a view of the tip of the abdomen.  No worry – if I can see segment 2 I'm in business.

A Four-Star Teneral

A teneral is a dragonfly (or other insect) that has just undergone moulting.  In photo below, a dragonfly has just emerged from its last larval stage to become a winged adult.  It has given up the underwater existence it's known all its life to become an air-breathing, flying adult.  It doesn't moult again.

The teneral pictured above is a male Western Pondhawk.  You can tell it's a male by the presence of hamules, the bumpy structure that projects downward near the base of the abdomen.  The hamules are used to "latch" the male and female together during mating in the wheel position.  In a female, the underside of the abdomen near the base is smooth.  

It's always important to know which sex you're looking at when identifying dragonflies, but with this species it's particularly helpful because both sexes start off brilliant green.  Female pondhawks stay green as they mature, but the males turn from green to blue in stages starting at the tip of the abdomen and progressing toward the head.  The body and eyes of the adult male are solid blue, only the face remains green – in fact, the green face is a good distinguishing feature to separate male Western Pondhawks from male Blue Dashers, which have a white face.

Tenerals have a "fresh" look to them, with distinctively vivid colors.  The wings of a teneral look almost like cellophane.  In fact, the wings haven't completely hardened at this stage of a dragonfly's life, and as a result the flight of tenerals is usually quite weak and slow – almost like the fluttering flight of winged termites.  In fact, it's often possible to recognize a teneral from some distance because of its characteristic flight behavior.  When a dragonfly is fully mature, however, its flight becomes strong and fast, as you would expect for a top predator.

Blue-eyed Darner

A beautiful, male Blue-eyed Darner rests on my finger at Cranberry Lake.  The brilliant blue eyes are a particularly striking feature of this species.  This is a "textbook" view of the Blue-eyed Darner, and though it shows the beauty of the animal, it misses the interesting appearance of its face.

Here's a head-on view of the Blue-eyed Darner.  Notice the two prominent primary pseudopupils that seem to be looking right at us.  This species lacks the heavy "eyebrows" and dark "smile line" of the Paddle-tailed Darner (Happy-face), but it still has a nice expression.  The side view above gives no hint of what this dragonfly looks like when viewed from the front.

An Unusual Blue-eyed Darner

A male Blue-eyed Darner (note the narrow waist on segment 3) perches in the bushes at Cranberry Lake, in Anacortes, WA.  This is an older individual, as evidenced by the scuffed up wings and the ragged trailing edge of its left hindwing.  From this distance it's clear that something is odd about its right eye, which seems to have a dark spot on it.  I came in closer to get a better look.

Now it's clear that the dark spot is actually something that projects out from the eye.

A closer look shows that the dark spot has the same hexagonal grid as in the eye itself.  Apparently it resulted from some abnormality in the growth of the eye.

I lifted the dragonfly onto my finger for a better look.  The dark spot is on the upper edge of the dorsal fovea, which extends down to a point just behind the primary pseudopupil.  The secondary pseudopupils form a nice hexagonal lattice, as one would expect.

Interacting With Dragonflies

Autumn Meadowhawks in the wheel position.

Interacting with dragonflies is part of the fun of dragonflying.  In the photo above a pair of Autumn Meadowhawks in the wheel position rests on my finger.  These are the latest flying dragonflies in our area, and they are very comfortable with landing on people or sitting on your finger.  Betsy and I have given them the title of "Friendliest Dragonfly."

The pleasures of interacting with dragonflies.

Nature is a delight.

One day while taking pictures of dragonflies I had a Blue-eyed Darner on my finger.  A father and his daughter stopped and asked what I was doing.  When I told them, the girl said, "Can I hold it?"  I said sure, and transferred the cooperative dragonfly from my finger to her hand.  As you can see, she was delighted with the experience.  It was a beautiful dragonfly, with incredible blue colors.  The dragonfly sat on her hand for about five minutes.  We eventually walked closer to the shore, she held her hand out, and the dragonfly took off.  She said, "Will it come back?"  "No," I said, "it has a busy life and lots of things to do."

The dragonfly had not been caught with a net or manipulated in anyway – it was a "free range" dragonfly.  I simply lifted it up from the bushes on my fingertip.  It was free to fly away any time it wanted.