Chasin' odes! (There are pictures!!)
May. 18th, 2019 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickOkay, so it wasn't raining this morning but it also wasn't bright and sunny. It was a bit chilly and overcast, which is fine because that means anything eclosing is going to be taking its time about it.
I put on my underarmor tights (they keep ticks and leeches off, cut down on scrapes from rough-edged sedges, and cover my alarmingly pale and unshaven legs) and a t-shirt "skirt" (cut a straight line across the top, bisecting neck hole and slitting sleeves, turn upside down, safety pin around waist) so that people can't look at my ass or my cellulite, slid on my old, broken sneakers (because there is muck and wading and it's just... you either wear hip waders or shoes you don't care about) and headed out.
I took my cell phone & belt holster (I am a Fashion Icon, I assure you) and also my travelling bag slung bandolier style with clippies (for the fucking Japanese barberry) and glubs (also for the fucking Japanese barberry) and my new digital camera.
It was a pretty good outing.
The E. cynosura (common baskettail) are out in force. I saw several. I will not be reporting them to OC because there I just do the first and last records for the season. But I have them for me. I also took some pix of exuvia that I am pretty sure belong to E. cynosura.
Here's a picture of one, just eclosed, with droplets on the (very shiny) wings. This is a fresh dragonfly, likely before its first flight ever.
The exuvia is what they used to look like before they became adults. It's left behind, attached to whatever substrate they clung to during eclosure. The exuvia don't last long, they're brittle and lightweight.
And that's nice to know. What else was out there?
Didymops transversa, Stream Cruiser. He was not cruising a stream, he was cruising beats along the lake shore.
This was not a new species for me and I was pleased with myself to have identified him on the wing by flight pattern and behavior even though he was not at a stream like he's supposed to be.
And then in the swampy bits below the dam, I found this...
This is a forktail, a tiny species of damselfly. It is not our Most Common forktail (I. verticalis, the Eastern Forktail) but it is another kind, a new and different kind. I suspect it is a Fragile Forktail (Ischnura posita) but am waiting for confirmation from the experts at OC.
The weird little round balls hanging on it are apparently parasite things. I had no idea that was a thing but it is apparently a thing.
I put on my underarmor tights (they keep ticks and leeches off, cut down on scrapes from rough-edged sedges, and cover my alarmingly pale and unshaven legs) and a t-shirt "skirt" (cut a straight line across the top, bisecting neck hole and slitting sleeves, turn upside down, safety pin around waist) so that people can't look at my ass or my cellulite, slid on my old, broken sneakers (because there is muck and wading and it's just... you either wear hip waders or shoes you don't care about) and headed out.
I took my cell phone & belt holster (I am a Fashion Icon, I assure you) and also my travelling bag slung bandolier style with clippies (for the fucking Japanese barberry) and glubs (also for the fucking Japanese barberry) and my new digital camera.
It was a pretty good outing.
The E. cynosura (common baskettail) are out in force. I saw several. I will not be reporting them to OC because there I just do the first and last records for the season. But I have them for me. I also took some pix of exuvia that I am pretty sure belong to E. cynosura.
Here's a picture of one, just eclosed, with droplets on the (very shiny) wings. This is a fresh dragonfly, likely before its first flight ever.
The exuvia is what they used to look like before they became adults. It's left behind, attached to whatever substrate they clung to during eclosure. The exuvia don't last long, they're brittle and lightweight.
And that's nice to know. What else was out there?
Didymops transversa, Stream Cruiser. He was not cruising a stream, he was cruising beats along the lake shore.
This was not a new species for me and I was pleased with myself to have identified him on the wing by flight pattern and behavior even though he was not at a stream like he's supposed to be.
And then in the swampy bits below the dam, I found this...
This is a forktail, a tiny species of damselfly. It is not our Most Common forktail (I. verticalis, the Eastern Forktail) but it is another kind, a new and different kind. I suspect it is a Fragile Forktail (Ischnura posita) but am waiting for confirmation from the experts at OC.
The weird little round balls hanging on it are apparently parasite things. I had no idea that was a thing but it is apparently a thing.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-19 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-19 09:40 pm (UTC)I went to WalMart and bought a 4' Frabill aluminum landing net for about ten bucks. (This is the net fishing people use to help land the fish they catch.) I also bought a couple of yards of fine-mesh fabric netting like you'd use for, y'know, wedding favors or something. It's in the crafts section of WalMart if you want to one-stop your shopping.
At home, I taped the fine mesh fabric (duct tape) to the aluminum net frame and then hand-sewed a diagonal seam from net frame to a point far away from the net frame. I used ordinary thread for that.
The fine mesh fabric netting is lightweight enough to not damage even very tiny damselflies and it lasts for about two seasons of reasonably careful use. Snag it on a multiflora rose or greenbriar or whatever, though, and you're going to have holes.
When it gets too many holes, I take it off and make a new net using the same frame. Because the netting is not-permanent, duct tape is OK for holding it in place.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-19 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 11:28 am (UTC)