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

Oh no! Erionota thrax!!

 The egg of the voracious culprit

     The tell-tale sign of the Banana Skipper (Erionata thrax, Family: Hesperiidae) appeared on my biggest banana plant last week. One leaf became a home for the caterpillars, who chewed up the edges of the leaf and curled themselves up inside their newly made home. I immediately began to squish the little guys. Then I realized I should have taken some pictures. Luckily, I found some unhatched eggs (above photo). The caterpillars are tiny and slender. A green body and dark-colored head. Plan to search for the adult form soon. I brought the banana back into the garage, but just today found newly hatched caterpillars curled up in the lower regions of one of the leafs. I should have thought to inspect the stems, not just the leaves, because that's where I found the eggs.

 Damage to my banana plant

Impromptu trip to Andy South area on Friday. Was hoping for nice, big puddles I'd scoped out in early Fall.  Unfortunately the dry season seems to have arrived, so only found smaller puddles and one big muddy area. Lots of Orthetrum sabina sabina and baby toads. Managed to catch a sabina. Was a bit less vibrantly colored than the one I caught the week before. Also caught a Monarch butterfly. Butterflies are so easy to catch instead of dragonflies. The only other dragonfly present around the road puddles was a orange-colored, almost iridescent, fast-flying dragonfly. It was a sight to see two of them were in tandem. However, was unsuccessful in catching them. To try to capture them makes one feel as if one is in slow-motion. You will see it easily dodge the swoop of a net one or two moments before you even register its change in position. Cannot even be sure what species it is. I'm going to guess it is Tholymis tillarga, but I really can't be sure without catching it. I am determined to catch one now.

 Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)

Another green marsh hawk (Orthetrum sabina sabina)

Orthetrum sabina sabina: First Dragonfly Catch

Net gain of 1

I'm pretty sure I'm holding it correctly. It did fly away when I let it go.

Close-up of caudal appendage

Finally finished my dragonfly net. There happened to be two species of dragonfly flying around the house in the late morning. Successful in catching this little guy, or girl: Orthetrum sabina s. or its common names, slender skimmer or green march hawk. It's a beautiful specimen with black and green alternating stripes on its thorax and humongous, green compound eyes. It's also rather feisty. I let it crawl on my hand and it bit me! Its fangs are pretty powerful and the bite drew a tiny bit of blood. When it breaths, its abdomen inflates and deflates a bit. According to another blogger of dragonflies, you can only tell what sex the bugger is if you compare the caudal appendage. The female appendage is more splayed, but I cannot really tell now looking at these photos. Sabinas are found all over the world, from Africa to Australia. Most dragonflies of worldwide distribution have also found their way to Guam. Diplacodes bipunctatus is also found all over the world.

Thanks to my sister for taking these awesome photos and my dad for using his expert bug catching skills to catch the dragonfly.

More Diplacodes bipunctatus...And I Need a Better Camera

 Another fuzzy photo: Diplacodes bipunctatus, male, by a rain puddle

 Rain catchment originally devised by my ingenious Grandpa

Weeds galore! and a young banana plant

A few photos of today's adventure in the garden. Weeding is the main task right now. I thought it would be rather boring, but there's a certain satisfaction that comes out of doing something practical with your hands, even if it is just pulling out ugly grass and vine. My dad helped dig out the impossibly heavy bricks surrounding the dead palm trees. We got sidetracked trying to identify the shells of land snails scattered about the soil. The shells are numerous, but they are all introduced species. A tragic war of attrition is occurring right now. Many of Guam's endemic land snails are very endangered or already extinct, being pushed out be introduced species and land development. I bet most of the fauna and flora in the yard is introduced, not including my additions like the genovese basil.

Sat by a rain puddle to try to catch a pic of Diplacodes bipunctatus, which is pretty common in the yard. My zoom function sucks though, and the details of it's body are hard to see.