Top Photo: Autumn meadowhawk (male). Autumn meadowhawks, formally known as yellow-legged meadowhawks, are late season dragonflies. I’ve seen them here at the museum as late as December and certainly in October and November. The former name of yellow-legged meadowhawk was changed to autumn meadowhawk about 20 years ago to indicate the species behavior or seasonality rather than the color to its legs, which are not particularly yellow. Other look-a-like meadowhawks in the genus Sympetrum have black legs. The meadowhawk shownRead more
Posts tagged: #odes
Summer’s Here!
Top Photo: Male eastern pondhawk. Summer’s here and the time is right for basking in the sun. The young male eastern pondhawk in these two photos (above and below) is perched on a rock just off the floating walkway in our wetland. It can be identified as a “young” male by the green color on its thorax, which will become blue as the dragonfly matures. I’ve shown lots of pictures of basking aquatic turtles in the past few weeks. SoRead more
Feeling the Heat?
Top Photos: Green treefrog peeks out from frog pipe in Earth Moves. It may be hot out there, but at least their’s plenty to look at to get your mind off the temperature, somewhat. If you’re going to take a photo of a silver-spotted skipper, do it fast, they don’t sit still long. You never know what or who you’re going to run into. Yes, it’s hot, but you can’t see any of these things sitting inside with the A/CRead more
Summer Odes
Top Photo: Male blue dasher perched and ready to sally forth. In the photo below a pair of blue dashers mate, assuming the “wheel” or “heart” position. This is when sperm is transferred from the male’s accessory genitalia to the tip of the female’s abdomen where her eggs will be fertilized. As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, great blue skimmers are the largest eastern skimmer. They’re a common sight at ponds, lakes, and slow moving rivers and streams. SlatyRead more
Cardinal and Pandora, Tortoise Beetle, and Annual Caterpillar Feast
Top Photo: Male cardinal wrestles with large green caterpillar. The cardinal flopped to the ground no more than a dozen feet from us on the Dinosaur Trail. It had a large green caterpillar under its control. Two months earlier, just feet away from where we now stood, I photographed a male cardinal tearing apart two luna moths. May was a busy month for luna moths, mating and laying eggs. Could this big caterpillar which was now committed to being eatenRead more
A Few Flying Insects
Here’s a quick look at some flying insects I’ve encountered during the past few weeks. American lady butterflies are fairly large and easy to spot in the flower garden at the Butterfly House. These butterflies look similar to a southwestern species which makes it to the state every couple of years. On this species, American lady, note the white dot on an orange rectangular area of the forewing which is visible from both above and below. On the underside ofRead more
What’s Out There?
Top Photo: Great blue skimmer with prey. In one rather quick trip around the outdoor loop here at the museum I came upon a good bunch of interesting sights. In no particular order, here’s some of them. There are banana trees planted at several locations throughout the museum’s outdoor areas. The one pictured is in the garden next to Sprouts Cafe. Pomegranate is growing next to the bananas. Along the edge of that same garden I spotted a banded longhornRead more
June Sightings in The Wild
It’s near the end of June. Below (and above) are photos of some of the creatures I’ve seen during the month. They’re arranged in no particular order. The top photo is of one of the milkweeds, butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). It attracts many insects to it’s flowers, leaves, and seed pods throughout the summer season. Here, you can see new flower buds on the left and older flowers to the right. Some insects go out of their way to attractRead more
A New Species?
When I spotted the damselfly I immediately thought it was new to the Museum, that I hadn’t previously seen this species here in our Wetlands. But I had seen it before. When I checked my odonata checklist I realized that I had first seen this species on May 21, two years prior. It was an azure bluet. Azure bluets are not uncommon. If you were to search for them in our wetlands or any other shallow pond in the state, you’d likelyRead more