Dragonfly Count at Springbrook

At Saturday's Dragonfly count and program 12 of us found 14 species of dragonflies and damselflies, including this female Widow Skimmer.

Identification is complex with dragonflies as the males and females look different, and often the young adults look different than the older adults.

 The only way to positively identify many of the dragonflies is to look up close and personal at the last or 10th segment of the male's abdoman.  Each species has a distinctive structure, which is how we were able to identify this male Midland Clubtail Dragonfly.


This gets pretty technical.  I enjoy the ones that can be easily identified from a distence.

Thanks to John Arthur for leading this program. He knows dragonflies well and seems to have an affinity for them, as this White Faced Meadowhawk Dragonfly landed on his beard during the hike.