The Urban Pantheist

This guy lives up to the name--it's the most frequently seen dragonfly in the yard. This is a male, with his bluish white abdomen; females are the same shape but have brown "tails" marked with light diagonal dashes. (As seen here.) All dragonflies are predators that catch other insects in flight, including biting flies. You should always be happy to have dragonflies around.

We see these in the yard on a regular basis throughout the summer. My first instinct is, well, clearly that's a 12-spotted something or other. But since dragonflies tend to be named for the flashy males, distinctive females like this one end up with nonsensical names. This is the female of the common whitetail Libellula lydia*, named for the male's frosty blue-white abdomen. Like the meadowhawks discussed earlier, this species wanders from from the water (where they spend their larval days) to hunt in fields and forest edges, and the suburbs that approximate such habitats.

* This name is not accepted by all (notably bugguide) but seems to rule the day on wikipedia at least. "Libellula" is coined in scientific Latin from libella, which itself refers to a very small coin. What the hell does that have to do with anything? Beats me, but was more than I could find out than I could about "lydia," which seems to always have been a woman's name, derived from the name of an ancient land in present-day Turkey.

Stone Zoo has an American alligator exhibit open for the summer! There are three medium sized gators in there; keepers go in teams to clean it, with one zookeeper in charge of making sure the animals keep their distance.


I was at Stone Zoo to (among other things) set up stable fly traps. This dragonfly unwisely landed on my pile of sticky sleeves--fortunately the backings are still on them, so the odonate was not trapped.

Self-portrait as unhealthy snacks.

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Meadowhawk Sympetrum sp.

Meadowhawks are small dragonflies that often hunt far from water. In many species the males are red. Determining species often can only be accomplished by closely examining the terminal appendages of the male--not yet a hobby of mine. This one was perched on a plantain flower/fruit stalk long enough for Alexis to suggest I go get my insect net and catch it. This is the way to hold a dragonfly (in zookeeper talk: manually restrain) so that you don't hurt it and it doesn't get away.


I've noticed that after some manual restraint many insects are tired, and rest a while in place before flying away.

This past Sunday we had an Urban Nature Walk in the Bussey Brook Meadow Urban Wild. This little chunk of land connects the Forest Hills rapid transit stop to the Arnold Arboretum, making it very easy for any car-free Bostonian to get there. As it happens, two of us came by car, two by bicycle. This photo is from the end of the walk, when we emerged from an Arboretum gate to find an abundance of black raspberries!

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See other pics from the walk from lizziebelle here: http://lizziebelle.livejournal.com/846229.html
And from Ajay here:
http://sicloot.com/blog/2013/07/urban-nature-walk-bussey-meadow/

Common whitetail Plathemis lydia

The common whitetail is named for the male's pale bluish-white abdomen. The female looks very different, with a dark brown abdomen marked with light colored diagonal dashes. The male of this dragonfly species are unmistakable, but at least one guide warns that the female's dark wing markings make her resemble the 12 spotted skimmer. The 12 spot has a much longer abdomen with a more slender overall appearance. The whitetail also has a habit of perching on the ground, a behavior less likely in the other dragonfly. Alexis and I photographed these female whitetails on two consecutive days, perching horizontally on the stone footbridge in the Riverway. When disturbed they would fly a short distance away, landing horizontally again, or vertically as shown above, on a nearby tree. We took these animals to be resting at the end of their life spans, but they may live on for a few more months, feeding on mosquitoes, midges, and other flying insects by the river.

Alexis' photograph: http://cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com/1270580.html

Dodder, along the banks of the Muddy.

Widow Skimmer Dragonfly Libellula luctuosa

Dragonflies breed near water, and their nymphs live there, feeding on mosquito larvae and other aquatic insects, and the adults are most often found within a short distance of ponds or lakes. Widow skimmers, like this female photographed in Franklin Park, a mile or so from the nearest significant body of water, will fly to far off fields to hunt insects. Male dragonflies of most species engage in battles to defend the territory where their mates have laid eggs. Not so the widow skimmer, thus the colorful name. The animals themselves are colorful and show sexual dimorphism: the female has these distinctive yellow stripes, while the male is bluish with unique white and black markings on its wings.

We went to Lost Pond Reservation again today, and I collected some more mushrooms for spore prints, including this lovely Russula (or one just like it).

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