Last updated: 27 June 2004 [Closed call for Papers, added final program and agenda for paper sessions] 

Join hosts Steve and Marcia Hummel  this summer in northeastern Iowa.  A new meeting format for this year, and lots of great dragonfly localities await!  Contact Steve and Marcia (Email: mshummel at netins.net) or Roy Beckemeyer (Email: royb at southwind.net) and let us know of your plans to attend.  Watch this site for details as they develop.

Meeting Dates & Pre- and Post-Meeting Accomodations  /  Meeting Place  /  Links  /  Info on Iowa Dragonflies / Airports / Call for Papers / Abstracts of Submitted Papers / Business Meeting Agenda Items / Attendees to Date  /  Info on NE Iowa Insects / 

Meeting Dates:

Pre-meeting trip to area north of Waterloo-Cedar Falls for survey of Black Hawk, Benton and Buchanan counties for Ophiogomphus sp. ("Sand Snaketail"): Arrival date - 5 July, In field - 6-8 July.  Pre-meeting headquarters in Independence, Iowa.  Make reservations for 5 through 7 July, with departure on the 8th for Decorah.    A block of rooms reserved at Super 8 Motel at 2000 1st St. W. in Independence.  Phone: 319-334-7041.  Make reservations by June 28.  Mention DSA to get corporate rates: 1 person $47.59/night, $142.77 for 3 nights; 2 persons $53.89/night, $161.68 for 3 nights.  Room includes DeLuxe Continental Breakfast, micro-refrigerators in rooms.  To get to motel: Go north at exit 252 on US Hwy 20 to T intersection, then turn right (east).  

DSA 2004 Annual Meeting: Arrival date - 8 July; Meeting dates - 9-11 July; Departure date - 12 July.

Post-meeting trip: Centerville, in Appanoose County (this county is on the Missouri border) 13-14 July.   Several species new to the Iowa list have been found here recently by Ann Johnson, and we might add to the Iowa list and distributional records here.  Make reservations for 12 July through your departure date.  Post-meeting headquarters in Centerville at the Motel 60 & Villa Inn at Hwy 5 North, where a block of rooms have been reserved for DSA.  Phone: 800-437-7271.  Make reservations by June 28 and mention DSA to get the reduced rate: Single, $45.00/night; double $50.00/night.  More info available at <www.motel60com>. Located just north of Hwy 2 on Hwy 5, east side of road.  Motel has an indoor pool & hot tub, continental breakfast.  Rooms have coffee makers and refrigerators. 

Meeting Place:

Meeting will be headquartered in the town of Decorah, Iowa, up in the northeastern corner of the state, with meetings at Luther College.    Geothermal air-conditioned housing will be available at Baker Village on the campus.  See http://reslife.luther.edu/reshalls/baker/baker.html
for pictures of the units.  Each unit is 4 to 6 bedrooms with bathroom, kitchen, and living room area.  Cost of housing will be $35.00 per person per night with breakfast at the Centennial Union (the price includes a blanket, pillow, a linen packet, and breakfast tickets).  Other possibilities for housing include motels (a Super 8 Motel is located on the south edge of Decorah) and camping (Pulpit Rock Campground is run by the city and is located on the Upper Iowa River a short distance from the Luther College Campus).  Please contact us and let us know of your plans for attending the meeting as soon as you can, particularly if you wish to use the on-campus housing.

Links below are for web-based info on Decorah, Winneshiek County, Luther College, and the vicinity:

Links:

• Iowa State Parks: http://www.state.ia.us/dnr/organiza/ppd/
• Iowa Geographic Image Map Server: http://ortho.gis.iastate.edu/drg24/drg24.html     (topo maps for all of Iowa)
• Information on the Iowa Fishing Map Guide: http://www.sportsmansconnection.com/Iowa/ 
• Iowa Sportsman's Atlas - County maps that show not only federal and state areas, but also county areas together with size and description (habitat, uses, etc.).  Also names all streets (E-W roads in IA are numbered and N-S roads are named Avenues - part of the state's 911 system).  An essential addition to your DeLorme Atlas for finding your way to dragonfly hotspots in Iowa: http://www.sportsmanatlas.com/

Info on Iowa Dragonflies:

• Ann Johnson hosts the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Iowa Web Site: http://www.iowaodes.com/default.asp  The information at this site is based on both historical and current data on Iowa Odonata distribution, including the definitive survey efforts of Bob Cruden and Bud Gode.

• A publication: "The Odonata of Iowa", by Robert Cruden and Bud Gode, appeared as a research article in the Bulletin of American Odonatology, Vol. 6, Nr. 2, 15 Dec. 2000.

Airports:

• Minneapolis: 3 hours drive north of Decorah, major airport.

• Cedar Rapids: 2 hours drive south of Decorah, smaller airport, but reasonably good connections.

• Des Moines: 3.5 hours southwest of Decorah, smaller airport, but reasonably good connections.

• Rochester, MN - 1.25 hours north of Decorah, served by Northwest Airlines from Minneapolis.  Rental cars available, said to be not much more expensive than flying into Minneapolis.

• LaCrosse, WI - 1 hour northeast of Decorah, served by Northwest Airlines from Minneapolis and American Airlines from Chicago.  Rental cars available, and also said to be not much more expensive than flying into Chicago or Minneapolis.

• Chicago, IL (O'Hare) - about 5 hours southeast of Decorah.

Thanks to Dr. Kirk Larsen of the Luther College Biology Department for suggesting some of these alternate connections.

Call For Papers

CALL FOR PAPERS CLOSED 27 JUNE 2004

This year's meeting will include a day (Saturday, July 10) devoted to papers and business meeting, so that evenings will be free for specimen preparation, visiting, and so on.  The meeting will be hosted by the Luther College Biology Dept., so we wish to have an agenda put together as early as we can, and are therefore requesting that presenters provide us with information on their presentations.  We will accommodate general non-technical as well as technical presentations, and will likely have a general moderated discussion session on a Current Topic in Odonatology as well.  Please contact us with the following information:

• Title

• Authors & affiliation if desired (please identify the presenter if there are multiple authors)

• Brief abstract

• Audio-visual format (Powerpoint/overhead slides/35 mm slides/VHS/Other - please specify)

• Approximate time requested for presentation

Program, Abstracts, and Business Mtg. Agenda

2004 Annual Meeting of The Dragonfly Society of the Americas

Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, July 10, 2004

Program: Papers and Business Meeting

08:15 – Welcome and Thanks to Luther College Biology Department – Steve Hummel

Paper Sessions – John Abbott & Steve Hummel, Moderators

08:30 - Dragonflies of Explorer's Inn, Tambopata Region, Peru.  Dennis Paulson, Slater Museum of Natural History, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA 98416. 

Explorer's Inn, a 5500-hectare rain-forest site in the Madre de Dios drainage in southern Peru, supports more species of Odonata than any other locality in the world in its great variety of wetland habitats.  A total of 186 species have been found within walking distance of the lodge, with the greatest diversity of species at two oxbow lakes and in the forest itself.  About two dozen species are thought to be still undescribed.  [Powerpoint/Backup  35mm slides]

09:00 - The Dragonflies of Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia.  K. J. Tennessen (Presenter), W. F. Mauffray, S. A. Valley, J. J. Daigle, J. T. Johnson, & Fred Lencioni. 

The dragonfly fauna of Bolivia is poorly known.  We collected adults and larvae in Santa Cruz Department, the largest state in Bolivia, from 1998 to 2003, in November, February and August for a total of about 300 man-days in the field.  We recorded 201 species in Santa Cruz Department, 99 of which are new to Bolivia.  Libellulidae comprised about 70% of the Anisoptera fauna.  Lestidae and Platystictidae are reported for Bolivia for the first time.  Over 40% of the species we collected in Santa Cruz are relatively widespread in South America while 30% are distributed primarily north of Bolivia.  About 10% of the species occur mainly eastward and 7% occur mainly south of Bolivia.  Very few species in Santa Cruz Department are truly Andean (about 2%).  Thirteen of the species we collected in Santa Cruz Dept. are endemic to Bolivia; 11 of these are Zygoptera.  We collected at least 18 species new to science, 5 of which have been described.  [Overhead and 35 mm slides]

09:30 - Hine's emerald dragonfly (Somatochlora hineana) surveys - lessons from the Missouri Ozarks.  Tim Vogt, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of State Parks, Email: <Tim.Vogt@dnr.mo.gov>. 

Somatochlora hineana was listed as Endangered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995 (USFWS 2001).  Extant populations are known from Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Wisconsin (Cashatt and Vogt 2001).  Historically, this species has been reported from Alabama, Indiana, and Ohio (Vogt and Cashatt 1994, Cashatt and Vogt 2001).  The initial discovery of S. hineana in Missouri was by Linden Trial in 1999 at Grasshopper Hollow, Reynolds County (USFWS 2001, Vogt 2001).  Additional surveys by John Belshe, George and Phoebe Harp, Brett Landwer, Paul McKenzie, Joe Smentowski, Linden Trial, Jane Walker, and the author have discovered fifteen additional sites (Dent, Iron, Phelps, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon, Wayne counties).  Fourteen of the sites are small (< 2 acres).  S. hineana exuviae, larvae, oviposition, and territorial patrols have been observed at two, eleven, six and five sites, respectively.  The presence of this species at six of the sites is based solely upon larval or exuvial specimens.  Potential floristic and faunistic indicator species for future surveys in Alabama, Indiana, Ohio, Arkansas, New York and West Virginia are discussed. [Powerpoint]

10:00 - A New Research Project in Systematics of Odonata: Phylogeny of the New World Damselfly Genus Argia Rambur (Coenagrionidae) With an Emphasis on the Evolution of Reproductive Characters.  Ryan M. Caesar, Department of Entomology & Museum of Biological Diversity, The Ohio State University, 1315 Kinnear Rd., Columbus, OH 43212. 

I have recently initiated a research project in which I will explore the phylogeny and evolution of species of the damselfly genus Argia Rambur. The current status of research on this taxon and the methods to be employed during my study will be briefly reviewed. My talk will present the main goals of my dissertation and discuss the potential implications of this work for understanding the evolution of reproductive characters in odonates. Finally, I will request the cooperation of DSA members in obtaining specimens suitable for study from throughout the New World. [Powerpoint]

10:30 - DNA and Taxonomy: Myth, Method, and Molecular Characters. Erik Pilgrim, Department of Biology, Utah State University.

Contrary to what you may have heard, data from DNA is not the magic bullet that can solve all taxonomic questions. DNA sequences, however, can be a very useful tool for taxonomy at and above the species level.   In this talk, I will first give some background information about DNA and molecular characters.   Next, I will discuss those molecular characters used for species-level taxonomy and their appropriate applications.   Finally, I will talk about how molecular characters can be applied to species concepts and what this means for species taxonomy.   I hope this “talk” will be more a discussion with everyone than just a presentation by me, so come with questions in mind.  [Powerpoint]

11:00 - Baskettails:  Hybridization, Intergradation, or "I Just Can't tell!”  T. W. Donnelly, Discussion Leader.   

A study of Epitheca of three species (cynosura, costalis, and petechialis) has been remarkably difficult.  The three species seem to be distinct, but their diagnosis is a major challenge.  Cynosura is the most widespread, and varies from north to south.  Costalis is far more widespread than previously thought:  this study has shown it to be widespread in Ohio and Indiana, and southeastern Michigan, and with several occurrences in Iowa, all states where it had not been officially recorded.  It is most reliably distinguished from cynosura by its constricted abdomen.  In several places in the Midwest it intergrades with cynosura; elsewhere (TX, KY, FL, MO) intermediates are more scarce and might be hybrids rather than intergrades.
The western species petechialis seems distinct from costalis, but intergrades (or hybrids) are common.  The major problem of the entire study has been the distinction between cynosura and petechialis, which are narrowly sympatric in eastern TX and western LA.  The co-occurrence of these two species in a few places suggests that they are distinct species, but difficult to distinguish, as all eastern petechialis lack antenodal spots.  The distinction is made mainly on the basis of the shape of the cercus, which is more massive in petechialis, and in a slight difference in the proportions of the basal segments of the abdomen.  The vast majority of cynosura from east TX and west LA have unspotted wings, further complicating the diagnosis. [Powerpoint]

12:00 – 13:15 - Lunch

13:15 - The Odonatological Legacy of George H. and Alice F. Beatty.  Hal White, 103 Radcliffe Drive, Newark, DE 19711. 

George H. Beatty, III died in January 2004. He and his wife Alice Ferguson Beatty, who died in 1987, took six trips to Mexico to collect Odonata. Their collection of over 25,000 specimens now resides in the Frost Entomological Museum at the Pennsylvania State University. Recently discovered field notebooks will make it possible to assign papered specimens to specific localities and dates. Although the Beattys published a number of articles on the Odonata of Pennsylvania, they left undescribed the more than 20 species they thought they had discovered in Mexico. The contributions of George and Alice Beatty to the study of U.S. and Mexican Odonata will be summarized.  A general discussion on what needs to be done to make the collection accessible to and useful to taxonomists will complete the presentation. [Powerpoint, Overhead Backup]

14:00 - Discovery of an Amphipterygid Damselfly in Baltic Amber. Mike May, Department of Entomology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901.

A new genus and species of Amphipterygidae (s. lat.) has been discovered in what is almost certainly Baltic amber, thus dating it from about 40-50 Mya. The specimens consists of the entire thorax and legs, nearly the entire head, the basal 2 ½  abdominal segments, about 2/3 of the right forewing and a little less than half the left forewing, and the hindwings to about the level of the arculus. Since classification of the Amphiperygoidea (or Amphpterygida, sensu Bechly) is based primarily on larval characters, the affinities of the new species are unclear, but it differs in several important respects, as will be described, from any extant or previously known fossil amphipterygids. It is also the first amphipterygid known from amber. [Powerpoint]

14:30 - Odonata Phylogeny: A Preliminary Molecular Estimate. Seth M. Bybee, T. Heath Ogden, & Michael F. Whiting, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602.  

Higher-level phylogenetic relationships within Odonata have been controversial for many years. Relationships among the three recognized extant suborders of Odonata are still debated, as are the phylogenetic relationships of the constituent families. Although some molecular sequence data have been generated for odonates, these data have been confined primarily to the suborder Anisoptera and consist largely of mitochondrial markers. DNA sequence data for six genes (12S rDNA, 16S rDNA, 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, COII, and Histone 3) were sequenced for over 90 taxa representing the major odonate lineages. These data were analyzed via optimization alignment and provide new insight into the evolution and diversification of odonates. [Slides]

15:00 - "Is This the Ancient Sign of a Dragonfly?” Realistic Images and Stylized Artifacts from Two Cultures.  Carol Adderley, Iowa City, Iowa. 

This paper considers images of dragonflies, which were carved in clay, painted on pots and on walls, and even made of gold - sometimes with enough realistic detail for tentative identifications to be made today. Along with these easily recognizable figures of dragonflies, it also considers certain stylized figures, which have not previously been interpreted as dragonflies. [Powerpoint}

15:30 - You Are What You Eat – So What Do Adult Dragonflies Eat? Mike May, Department of Entomology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901.

Insects in general are specialized for feeding in their immature stages and for reproduction in the adult stages, and many taxa feed relatively little as adults. Odonata, however, are well known as voracious predators in the adult as well as the larval stage. Most species add 50-100% to their body mass after adult emergence, and after sexual maturity energy demands due to egg production (females) or mating activities (males) continue to be high. Surprisingly little attention has been given to adult feeding and its potential fitness consequences, however, and in particular, differences between the sexes have rarely been examined. With my former student, Joel Baird, I have analyzed in detail aspects of feeding in Pachydiplax longipennis and, less thoroughly, in Erythemis simplicicollis. The results suggest that males and females experience similar energy demands and raise the possibility that males, at least in P. longipennis, may be more risk prone foragers. [Powerpoint]

16:00 – 17:00 – Business Meeting

     Thanks to speakers and closure of paper sessions - Steve Hummel

            Secretary’s Report – Minutes from 2003 meeting – Sid Dunkle

            Treasurer’s Report – Jerrell Daigle

Editor’s Report – Nick Donnelly

Floor open to members for old or new business discussions followed by:

closing remarks,

thanks to Steve and Marcia Hummel,

and motion to dismiss – John Abbott

Business Meeting Agenda Items

            Secretary’s Report – Minutes from 2003 meeting – Sid Dunkle

            Treasurer’s Report – Jerrell Daigle

Editor’s Report – Nick Donnelly

Floor open to members for old or new business discussions followed by:

closing remarks,

thanks to Steve and Marcia Hummel,

and motion to dismiss – John Abbott

List of people who have indicated they will attend the meeting as of 11 June, 2004: