Last updated 28 September 2001
Even though the Odonata collecting has been slow around here what with all the cool weather and rain, I went to the North Fork of the Ninnescah River below Cheney Dam yesterday (Sedgwick County, KS), and noticed right off the bat a dragonfly patrolling a beat just a couple feet off the bank and a foot off the water. The weather was sunny (66 degrees F) but with clouds passing occassionally in front, and winds from the north at 15 mph. I watched for two passes to get his timing down, then swung and connected. The specimen proved to be a male Brechmorhoga mendax! The collection was made at 1500 hours, CDT.
I saw one other patrolling dragonfly that might have been another of the species, but it got cloudy enough so that it disappeared before I could get a good look. Other Anisoptera in the area were all cold tenerals, Erythemis simplicicollis and Libellula lydia among them. The river was up but receeding from the rains upstream over the weekend. Plan to go back and try some more today.
This is a first for KS, and appears to be a northeastern range extension. Previous Oklahoma records of which I am aware are from Cimarron, Comanche, Marshall, Murray, Payne and Pontotoc counties. The Sedgwick County record is 50 miles north of the OK border and 115 miles or so from Payne County, the northeastern-most of the OK records.
Roy J. Beckemeyer, 29 May, 1996
Note on check of site on 29 May. Arrived at 1400. Water level down to normal flows. One Anisoptera seen from a distance over the water briefly. No further activity by dragonflies noted during 45 minutes on the river. Damselflies Hetaerina americana, Enallagma civile, and Argia moesta were observed in tandem. Roy Beckemeyer, 30
May 1996.
As of 28 September 2001, the author has not seen this species at this site or anywhere else in Kansas since the original collection record.