Oh Odonata, how I will miss you when you are gone. Jewels on the wing- damselflies, the delicate ones who hold their wings daintily over their back, and dragonflies, those B-1 bombers of the air, snapping up mosquitoes in their leg baskets with abandon. They have been the stars around the pond since late spring. Though many species have laid their eggs and ended their two-month stint as adults, other species are just now coming into their own. The sight of Ruby Meadowhawks on many of the trails I hike lets me know we are at the end of summer. Just as you can tell which month is which by the scent of flowers blooming, you can also track the progress of summer, to some degree, by which dragonfly is clattering by.
Swimming at the pond in July meant practically ducking to get out the way of male Calico Pennants, dive bombing each other whenever one strayed into the other’s territory. It also meant watching myriad’s of threads of bright blue fly among the pond side vegetation for the Bluets were having their coming out party. Now, I seldom see either of those, but last week at Hoxie Pond, the sought after treat was the sight of the almost-too-slender-to-see Violet Dancers.
If you manage to get a close look at them when they land you will see a slender, for these are damselflies, violet abdomen with bright blue at the tip. Those are the males. I actually got to see a mating pair, and what I thought had been a “ come hither dance”, turned out, now that I know a female, to have been two males sparring, not courting. The female, is a drab rusty color, but now I know. That is the way we learn, isn’t it? Watch and see and some things you thought were true may turn out to not be.
This week, and I always see this as a sign that we are turning towards Fall, the Ruby and I mean ruby- red Meadowhawk is out hawking along the trail. All dragonflies and damselflies start their life in the water, and will lay their eggs in the water, but some head to meadows and upland fields to live out their short adult lives and this is one of them. Look for them from now until October along sunny trails. I think with this species, the female is more of a yellow color. The one I saw today was hovering in the sunlight and it must have been newly emerged for it was as red as red gets. Beautiful!
One of the larger, maybe the largest dragonfly, that everyone recognizes is the Common Green Darner. They are common, as their name suggests, and they have a large green head and long blue abdomen. These are the ones that migrate south for the winter. Obviously, they manage to live more than the 2 months all the others do. They say this species can be seen massing together over fields by the 1,000’s. Wouldn’t that be something to see! I have only seen them by the 5 and 6’s but than maybe I just haven’t been at the right place at the right time. They are strong fliers who have been clocked at 40mph. I would easily believe a lot of them are capable of those speeds, especially when they are buzzing by my head as I float along in the water.
This entire jewel-like beauty of the adult phase is nowhere to be found in the nymph stage. Buggy eyes, long bodies, a mouth that flies out on a hinge to eat ever larger prey as they grow, the dragonfly nymph is the terror of the deep. The damselflies are also predators in their nymph stage but they swish their “tail” as they swim looking more like sashaying ladies than trained assassins. For that matter, my sympathy goes out to the male damselfly, for we tell the kids to remember which is which because the damselfly swims like she is saying “I’m a damsel in distress”, which probably isn’t the way a male damselfly would chose to be remembered!
Amazingly, both dragonflies and damselflies can take from 6 months to 6 years to go through their nymph stage before they come out and have their 2-month season as adults. That phase is all about, quick, find your true love, mate, and deposit the eggs one by one into the slit of an underwater plant and then, its curtains. Ah, the brevity of life.
But there are still a few months left to be entranced by them. Watch for the way they “power down” when they land. Just like a helicopter, a very mechanical lowering of the wings. Move slowly and you can get pretty close to them, close enough to see that dragonflies have HUGE eyes with, take my word on this, 30,000 facets to them. Damselflies, if YOU have good enough eyes to see, have smaller, more set-apart eyes. Watch for the also mechanical way they move their head as they get things in focus. And if you catch one eating, well, that’s pretty cool too. They have really strong jaws. For that matter, their Latin name of Odonata means, teeth, which they don’t have, but someone watching must have thought they must for the way they chomp down on things.
So, there’s your assignment, catch some of this Odonata show before it leaves town. Because once they are gone, it’s a long time before the air if full of clatter and jewel dancers again. At least, for those of us who live in the Northeast.
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