2003
Meeting of The Dragonfly Society of the Americas - Williams, California,
with post trips to the Owens Valley - Page 3
Last updated 12 July 2003
Photo at right: A mating pair of Enallagma clausum, the
Alkali Bluet, from a video sequence taken at Tinemaha Reservoir. The
species was common on the willows and Tamarisk (Salt Cedar) along the bank of
the lake. June, 2003.
Thanks to Kathy and Dave Biggs, Tim Manolis, and Andy Rehn,
hosts and tour guides for the meeting. See Kathy's web pages on the
meeting at: DSACALIFORNIA
Photos taken by Roy J. Beckemeyer unless otherwise noted.
Material ©2003 by Roy J. Beckemeyer. Do not use or copy without
permission.
The Alkali Bluet is found in the western US and appears to prefer alkaline
or saline waters. We had seen it also at the Nebraska DSA meeting in 1998
at Big Alkali Lake, and in New Mexico on the post trip after the Texas DSA
Meeting in 2001.
At right is a female E. clausum apparently eating a plant hopper
(Homoptera). Photo taken in July 1998 at Big Alkali Lake, Valentine NWR,
Nebraska. An olive color form female.
Sometimes mating coenagrionids (pond damselflies) seem to just sit very
quietly - in other cases, the males make movements that seem aimed at
transferring sperm by compressing the sperm storage vesicle of the secondary
genitalia. I filmed the mating pair of E. clausum shown in the
still image above, and caught a short sequence of the male lifting his abdomen
up and down periodically. The mpeg file for this sequence is 1.8MB, and an
alternate version of this page with the movie can be downloaded by clicking the
link below. The movie is set to loop continuously in a 320 pixel square
screen after it downloads. The large file may take a long time to
download.