Lost Pond treasures

Rhyothemis phyllis

Anax sp.

unidentified duck

Tramea transmarina Euryale

     I've been helping a buddy catch insects for a special project the last several weekends and finally caught this beaut of a dragonfly at my house. It is a female Tramea transmarina euryale. Its flight is incredibly fast, and I only managed to catch it with my puny net because it took a rest on the front window of my car. Its abdomen looks "flat" with black marking on the top of the last few segments of its abdomen. It has a quite noticeable caudal appendage. It's body is dark orange. The male is red, but I haven't seen any around my house. This specimen had beautifully intact wings, but looks like it had a passenger on its lower right wing, a tiny little insect, perhaps some kind of parasite. It is a rather large insect, and I can imagine that it would effect the dragonfly's flight in some way.

View from above

Side view

close-up of a possible parasite

Strange Behavior

A couple evenings ago I observed a dragonfly exhibiting ovipositing behavior in the back of my Grandpa's pick-up truck. It would fly and hover inches from the black surface of the truck's bed, and then dab it's abdomen on the surface. It did this dabbing motion countless times, and I was able to observe an almost methodical and angular flight to it's behavior.  It would turn perfect 45 degree angles most times it went to dab its abdomen.

I'm not sure what kind of dragonfly it was, though it was a dark orangey-brown color, maybe a female tramea transmarina euryale?

After doing a trusty Google search and finding a couple scholarly articles, and a good explanation on Wikipedia, my best guess is that the black, plastic sheeting of the pick-up truck bed mimics the polarity of light reflecting off of a body of water. Perhaps this is because of the undulating nature of the sheeting. The back of my grandpa's pick up truck would therefore be considered an ecological trap. Many other man made items are considered ecological traps for dragonflies and other insects who are attracted to polarized sources of light because they will spend their time guarding a car window rather than a rain puddle, and miss out on food, mates, and ovipositing sites ("Ecological Trap" Wikipedia).

Here is an interesting article about how black gravestones trick dragonflies: Dragonfly pdf

Sidetracked on Saipan: Anaciaschna jaspidae and butterflies!

Found this little guy (actually pretty big for a dragonfly) at Naftan point on Saipan. My group partner almost chopped off its head in the pursuit. It is a rusty darner, Anaciaschna jaspidae, found also on Guam. It is very beautiful and the male we caught had marvelous marble-like blue eyes. The female eyes are green colored. Even with head partly decapitated, it put up a fight and bit the hand of my partner. At times its abdomen would coil upwards as if to strike. However, I think it did this because it was in pain.

Last two weeks spent studying butterfly abundance. These two Eurema blandas seem to be having a good time. I thought I'd be sick of butterflies by the end of the course, but fortunately that is not the case.

Two E. blanda