ODONATA - Dragonflies
& Damselflies
A Web Page by Roy J.
Beckemeyer - Last updated 9 February, 2007
Background and Right: Two widespread and common, but
quite lovely dragonflies (both males): Plathemis lydia, The Common
Whitetail (Background), and Libellula pulchella, The Twelve-spotted Skimmer.
Both were photographed in Kansas in June, 2006: the Common Whitetail in Sim
Park, Wichita, Sedgwick County, the Twelve-spotted Skimmer while leading a dragonfly walk on the Konza
Prairie (Riley County) for the Friends of the Konza Prairie docents. Most dragonflies
commonly seen around ponds and lakes are skimmers (Family Libellulidae). Dragonflies and
damselflies are interesting to watch (they are often called "birdwatchers'
insects" because of their size, colors, and interesting habits), and challenging,
but fun, to photograph. Many species can be identified through binoculars,
some while in flight, but voucher specimens are still preferred for documenting
their occurrence.
I have concentrated here on dragonfly topics that I am
interested in, and hope that you find something of interest to you in these
pages as well. If you are from Kansas or one of the adjacent states and
want to learn about or study the Odonata of our area, please get in touch with
me (see the email address listed at the bottom of this page).
LINK HERE TO ACCESS THE NEWLY REVISED ODONATA
CENTRAL
Dragonflies and damselflies
are aquatic insects -
they spend most of their life under water in a completely
different form than the winged adults. These larvae (sometimes referred to
as nymphs or naiads) typically take a year to mature, climb out of the water,
and hatch into winged adults. At right is a picture taken at a fish
hatchery in Cherry County, Nebraska of a female Anax junius (Common Green
Darner) dragonfly adult that has just emerged and is still clutching its larval
shell (called an exuviae). Odonata
(dragonflies and damselflies) are usually found near creeks, rivers, ponds,
lakes, or other bodies of water. The Twelve-spotted Skimmer dragonfly
perched on the stick in the picture at the top of this page is a male. He
was perched where he could look out over a small pool of water. Most of
the dragonflies and damselflies you see near open water are males. They
often establish a territory in a spot that they recognize as one where females
would find attractive as places for laying eggs. When a female arrives,
she is immediately pursued by males intent on mating with her. After
mating, males often stay with females while they lay their eggs, sometimes
holding on to them with appendages at the tip of their abdomen and flying with
them as they oviposit.
Damselflies and dragonflies of the family Aeshnidae place
their eggs into plant material. In the photo at right, a tandem pair of
Aeshnidae: Anax junius (Common Green Darner)
was
flying around a roadside ditch and ovipositing early in the spring in
southeastern Colorado.
Photo taken in May,
2000 in Baca County, Colorado with a 70-200 mm
f2.8 zoom lens with 2x telextender, Fuji Provia 400 film.
Scanned using a Polaroid SprintScan 35 slide scanner. Photography
© 2000 by Roy J. Beckemeyer.
Odonata
are aquatic insects for most of their lives, living in fresh water as larvae
before emerging as terrestrial adults. The picture on the left shows a
recently emerged female Common Green Darner (Anax junius), clinging to its larval
exuviae (skin). The larva had climbed up about three feet on a cattail
stalk at the edge of a small pond at the Fish Hatchery at Valentine,
Nebraska. The adult insect then emerged, and is now drying its wings prior
to flying off. The colors of the insect in this stage are much paler than
they will be once it is mature. There were quite a few Green Darners
emerging on the morning that this picture was taken, in late July, 1998.
All that I saw were females, although there were mature males flying around the
vicinity at this time.
Photo by Roy Beckemeyer - taken with flash and
using Fuji Velvia film. Scanned from the slide using a Polaroid SprintScan
35 scanner.
In other dragonfly familes, females lay their eggs directly into the water
or onto wet surfaces.
LINK HERE to a page
of photos about how Libellulidae (Skimmers): Libellula composita oviposits directly
into the water. Photos also show how these insects fly in tandem. LINK
HERE to a page with photos of oviposition in Sympetrum corruptum. LINK
HERE to Takashi Aoki's Pages on video segments of various kinds of
damselflies and dragonflies ovipositing.
Dragonfly Vision:
The
photo at the right shows the thorax and head of the darner
Coryphaeschna ingens. Photo taken in Florida by Roy J.
Beckemeyer. The darners are thought to have the finest vision of any
insects, their eyes having the largest facets and the most facets of any
compound eyes. The dark areas of the eye are called
"pseudo-pupils" and are areas of the eye surface that are absorbing
light arriving from the direction of view of the camera. They
indicate the directions in which the insect has the best vision. Dragonfly
eyes are fascinating, and reflect light beautifully.
Damselfly Size:
Various
Aspects of Dragonfly Biology:
- KANSAS CHECKLIST (Incuding county distribution maps.
Zygoptera maps and Anisoptera: Petaluridae, Aeshnidae and Gomphidae are
for KS and OK, other Anisoptera maps still only for KS. For some species
documented distributions are shown for somewhat larger areas.) This
checklist is based largely on the work of Don Huggins of the Kansas Biological
Survey and on the collections of that institution. Updates for recent records
are based on my collecting and museum specimen review activity as well as that
of others who have submitted their records and/or voucher specimens. Thanks to
Ragan Todd of Pittsburg, KS and Ralph Charlton of Kansas State University for
recent additions to the species and distribution list. I encourage all
collectors who take new state records or significant range extensions to place
voucher specimens in the KBS collection.
Species added to
Kansas list in 1996
/ Species added to
Kansas list in 1997
/ Species added to
Kansas list in 1998
/ Species added to Kansas list in 1999 / Species
added to Kansas list in 2000 /
-
KANSAS FIELD CHECKLIST - Download an
MSWord doc format file. When printed out back to back on an 8.5 x 11
sheet, it makes a trifold pocket checklist of Kansas Odonata. (This is
a read-only file. When you get a dialogue window asking for user name
and password, click "cancel". The file will then
download. Save it to your disk. When opening it with MS Word,
you will get a dialogue box asking for a password again. Click
"Open as Read-only file". Print the two pages back to back.)
-
KANSAS SCHOOL NATURALIST ISSUE "Checklist of Kansas Dragonflies"
COPIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Thanks
to Ken Brunson and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks for Chickadee
Checkoff funding for this publication.
Please access the following page for updates and corrections to this
checklist:
Addendum and
errata to "Checklist of Kansas Dragonflies"
KANSAS SCHOOL
NATURALIST ISSUE "Checklist of Kansas Damselflies" IS STILL AVAILABLE FROM
EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Thanks to the Price R. and Flora A. Reid Foundation,
The Central States Entomological Society, and Emporia State University for
funding this publication.
Please access the following page for updates and corrections to this
checklist:
Addendum and
errata to "Checklist of Kansas Damselflies".
Link here to download a Word for Windows file that will print the
addenda in a format that can be placed into the checklists: Addenda
-
DRAGONFLIES OF SOME KANSAS COLLECTING AREAS:
MISSOURI ODONATA INFORMATION
FROM THE MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION DATABASE - Courtesy of Linden Trial
(Updated 7/21/05):
Other information, including a checklist similar to those
for Kansas and Oklahoma, and county level distribution maps will eventually be
added.
NEBRASKA CHECKLIST Will eventually
include maps. Based largely on records assembled by Roy Beckemeyer before
and after the 1998 DSA Meeting in Valentine, NE and from information in the
extensive University of Nebraska State Museum (UNSM) insect collection at
Lincoln.
-
NEBRASKA FIELD CHECKLIST - Download an
MS Word doc format file. When printed out back to back on an 8.5 x 11
sheet, it makes a trifold pocket checklist of Nebraska Odonata.
(This is a read-only file. When you get a dialogue window asking for
user name and password, click "cancel". The file will then
download. Save it to your disk. When opening it with MS Word,
you will get a dialogue box asking for a password again. Click
"Open as Read-only file". Print the two pages back to
back.)
-
OKLAHOMA
CHECKLIST Will eventually include maps. Based
larely on the 47 years of work of George H. Bick, the list includes a few
additional records accumulated since George completed his county listing.
Updates and new occurrences should be submitted to us for inclusion. Submission
of voucher specimens is encouraged.
-
OKLAHOMA FIELD CHECKLIST - Download an MS
Word doc format file. When printed out back to back on an 8.5 x 11 sheet,
it makes a trifold pocket checklist of Oklahoma Odonata. (This is a
read-only file. When you get a dialogue window asking for user name and
password, click "cancel". The file will then download.
Save it to your disk. When opening it with MS Word, you will get a
dialogue box asking for a password again. Click "Open as Read-only
file". Print the two pages back to back.)
THE NUMBER OF FAMILIES, GENERA, AND SPECIES FOR THE GREAT
PLAINS, THE NEARCTIC, THE NEW WORLD, AND THE WORLD ARE COMPARED IN THE -
The photo on the right above is a Thailand odonate, the libellulid Trithemis
aurora, a shocking pink and red dragonfly that will knock your socks off the
first time you get it in your binoculars or viewfinder. Photo by Roy J.
Beckemeyer, January, 2000 -
- The photo on the right shows some libellulid exuviae found
in the reed beds near Hua Hin, peninsular Thailand, in January, 2000.
Photo by Roy J. Beckemeyer.
- Many of the Indian Odonata species depicted by Dr. Kakkassery
are also common to Thailand.
Dragonflies have always held a special place in the thoughts
of the Japanese people. As Mr. Aoki points out in the opening words at his
web site, in ancient times, Japan was often called "Akitsu Shima",
which means dragonfly's island.
This above site, hosted by Eric Gilbert of Hong Kong,
has photos of many Asian Odonata posted.
The above two sites record some of the dragonflies that I saw in
trips to South and Central America.
The above lists, put together by Martin Schorr, Martin Lindeboom,
and Dennis Paulson, list all described species together with synonyms, author,
and date of description.
Includes complete citations from the journals: Odonatologica, Notulae
Odonatolgicae, Advances in Odonatology, Bulletin of American Odonatology,
Pantala, the International Journal of Odonatology, the Odonata series from
Opuscula Zoologica Fluminensia and odonate-related papers from the Journal of
the North American Benthological Society, as well as miscellaneous works that I
have accumulated in the form of reprints or xerox copies. This is a fairly
comprehensive list of citations covering thousands of pages of odonate-related
publications, and of course can be searched using Netscape or other browser
editors. While some work is cited in one or more of the categories, most are
cited only in the most relevant category. For example, a discussion of a single
species in Ohio would be listed under the taxon, whereas a list of species found
to occur in a river system in Ohio would be cited in the faunistics
bibliography. Entries are listed alphabetically by author.
On 6 February I added Dennis Paulson's Odonata Literature List to the
Bibliography Link above. This adds many more references than the ones in
my subject lists and includes articles not in my library.
Sites related to Odonata Phylogeny &
Systematics:
