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which_chickToday, I saw a boatload of watersnakes. They're not poisonous or anything but they are kind of nasty and will bite at you if they feel cornered. Mostly they just startle me. But I saw, like, all of them today. Ugh. Not a huge fan of the startle.
The REASON I saw all the watersnakes was that I was looking for dragonflies. Which, of course, you already knew. But there were a lot of watersnakes involved, for a Non Watersnake Event.
Here a watersnake.
There a watersnake.
Everywhere a... no, wait, that's a snapping turtle.
Here's a wild geranium.
And here's a frog.
This is a Lancet Clubtail (female) which I know from careful examination of the subgenital plate and comparison of same to the diagrams in my field guide, the excellent Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East by Dennis Paulson. Female Lancet Clubtails look a lot like Female Ashy Clubtails and the females of a couple other clubtail species but you can tell them apart by the subgenital plates, which are different for each species.
Here is the subgenital plate for the female Lancet Clubtail.
Let me blow that up a little for you...
The structure you are looking at (to compare to your Paulson field guide which I am sure you have handy and flipped open to the correct page) is here outlined in red:
So yeah, Lancet Clubtail is the some kind of clubtail I needed an ID for in the valley.
I would also like to give a shout out to the macro feature on Canon's Powershot Elph series of cameras. I've had Canon Powershots since about 2002 or so and they have been wonderful from the first one onward. They reliably take pictures of Very Small Things and this is so helpful b/c I don't have to hold a dragonfly, a hand lens, AND a camera out in the field.
My current Canon Powershot is an Elph 190 IS, if anyone cares. (Image editing is done in Shotwell, color lines added in ColourPaint, which is a really basic "art" program for Ubuntu because I can't be arsed to learn GIMP.)
But more interestingly today, I was actually looking for exuvia, which regular readers will recall are the shed juvenile skins or whatever of dragonfly nymphs. They're fragile and don't last long in the landscape, so getting them this time of year is what you have to do.
I found this exuvia, which is in the baskettail family.
You can tell it's a baskettail-style nymph because of the two points at the back and the more-or-less disk shape to the abdomen.
But, it's a lot bigger than the Common Baskettail exuvia that I've been seeing a lot of here lately. I know this because I have compared this exuvia with a Common Baskettail one in the field, but you don't have to take my word for it -- I took a picture.
So yeah, that's A LOT bigger than the Common Baskettail exuvia. It's going to make a much larger dragonfly, too.
It has hooked, wave-like ridges going down the dorsal centerline.
These hooked ridges are present (but smaller and lamer and not nearly as visibly impressive) on Common Baskettail exuvia.
So, this is not a Common Baskettail exuvia. What is it?
It's a Prince Baskettail. I have not gotten an adult to get pix of for this season, but the presence of this exuvia suggests quite strongly that they're out and about.
The REASON I saw all the watersnakes was that I was looking for dragonflies. Which, of course, you already knew. But there were a lot of watersnakes involved, for a Non Watersnake Event.
Here a watersnake.
There a watersnake.
Everywhere a... no, wait, that's a snapping turtle.
Here's a wild geranium.
And here's a frog.
This is a Lancet Clubtail (female) which I know from careful examination of the subgenital plate and comparison of same to the diagrams in my field guide, the excellent Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East by Dennis Paulson. Female Lancet Clubtails look a lot like Female Ashy Clubtails and the females of a couple other clubtail species but you can tell them apart by the subgenital plates, which are different for each species.
Here is the subgenital plate for the female Lancet Clubtail.
Let me blow that up a little for you...
The structure you are looking at (to compare to your Paulson field guide which I am sure you have handy and flipped open to the correct page) is here outlined in red:
So yeah, Lancet Clubtail is the some kind of clubtail I needed an ID for in the valley.
I would also like to give a shout out to the macro feature on Canon's Powershot Elph series of cameras. I've had Canon Powershots since about 2002 or so and they have been wonderful from the first one onward. They reliably take pictures of Very Small Things and this is so helpful b/c I don't have to hold a dragonfly, a hand lens, AND a camera out in the field.
My current Canon Powershot is an Elph 190 IS, if anyone cares. (Image editing is done in Shotwell, color lines added in ColourPaint, which is a really basic "art" program for Ubuntu because I can't be arsed to learn GIMP.)
But more interestingly today, I was actually looking for exuvia, which regular readers will recall are the shed juvenile skins or whatever of dragonfly nymphs. They're fragile and don't last long in the landscape, so getting them this time of year is what you have to do.
I found this exuvia, which is in the baskettail family.
You can tell it's a baskettail-style nymph because of the two points at the back and the more-or-less disk shape to the abdomen.
But, it's a lot bigger than the Common Baskettail exuvia that I've been seeing a lot of here lately. I know this because I have compared this exuvia with a Common Baskettail one in the field, but you don't have to take my word for it -- I took a picture.
So yeah, that's A LOT bigger than the Common Baskettail exuvia. It's going to make a much larger dragonfly, too.
It has hooked, wave-like ridges going down the dorsal centerline.
These hooked ridges are present (but smaller and lamer and not nearly as visibly impressive) on Common Baskettail exuvia.
So, this is not a Common Baskettail exuvia. What is it?
It's a Prince Baskettail. I have not gotten an adult to get pix of for this season, but the presence of this exuvia suggests quite strongly that they're out and about.
