Dragonflies

[Astronuc]

This dragonfly showed up at the back door, and just happened to park itself on a stake of a tomato plant.  Sometimes Nature cooperates.

 

[Astronuc]

Dragonflies I saw this weekend.

[Orstio]

Beautiful!

Dragonflies are amazing creatures.  Their larvae are aquatic, like mosquito larvae, so the mosquito is the main source of food for the dragonfly throughout its lifespan.  They do not seem to have any fear of humans -- if you hold out your hand near a dragonfly, they will often land on it, probably for the warmth.

What is sad is the fact that mosquito fogging of chemical poisons kills more of the dragonfly population than the mosquito population.

[Astronuc]

We have an incredible variety of dragonflies and damselflies in our area in NY.

I do not use insecticides because the chemicals are harmful to bees, butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs (aka ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae), which hibernate under the siding of our house during winter), praying mantisses, walking sticks, ants and a variety of other beneficial insects, as well as birds.  Consequently we have an abundance of beneficial insects.

Incidentally, we have very few harmful insects.  During June, I have to manually remove Japanese beetles from my raspberries and other plants.  I certainly cannot use insecticides because 1) that is the same time bees are pollinating the flowers and collecting pollen, and 2) I don't want to expose my family, myself, our pets, and the wildlife which visit our yard.

Spiders, ants, preying mantisses and a host of other insects keep the undesirable insects in check.

 

[Astronuc]

As I mentioned in the butterfly thread, the USGS has a cool site.

This one is devoted to

Dragonflies and Damselflies (Odonata) of the United States - http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/insects/dfly/dflyusa.htm

I am sure they visit Canada too.   

They could really use more pictures though, so if you have pics, send them to these folks.

[Orstio]

We have a few of the species found in North Dakota and Minnesota up here in Manitoba, but I'm not sure that the biodiversity of them is so great up here.

As far as damselflies are concerned, I know of only one species up here:

[Astronuc]

Here is a small dragonfly. 

Orstio seems to have identified in the link in the next post.  It appears to be a Common Whitetail (Libellula lydia), which I guess makes sense since it has a white tail.

[Orstio]

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/insects/dfly/mn/381.htm

[Astronuc]

I had really cool dragonfly in my hand last night just before sunset.  I had to extract him from some plastic mesh around our vegetable garden.  The dragonfly had a green body and clear wings, and had about a 10-12 cm (4-5 inch) wingspan and body length.  Unfortunately, he flew off just as I was about to take a picture.

This dragonfly flew in this morning.

[Astronuc]

Another visitor - back in October last year.

He is sitting on my coffee mug.

[Astronuc]

This was one of those cool red dragonflies!

He was just sitting in one of our butterfly bushes (Buddleia davidii)

 

[Astronuc]

Dragonflies on National Geographic -

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0604/feature5/index.html

Image by József L. Szentpéteri

[Orstio]

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/insects/dfly/mn/402.htm

I had about a dozen of these beautiful golden-coloured dragonflies on my caraganas this afternoon.