51ÁÔĆć

Note: All links are to an external site.

Greetings, BugFans,

Last year, BugFan Nancy told the BugLady that she was making a quilt with a dragonfly motif, and asked what colors dragonflies came in.ĚýAll of them. The BugLady sent her pictures of blue, green, purple, orange, red, and a variety of multi-colored dragons and damsels.ĚýThe BugLady promises that BOTW is not going to march through the entire list of North American dragonflies and damselflies, but, oh my, isn’t this a handsome dragonfly!  Plus, it’s being photobombed in one shot by a brilliantly-orange Eastern Amberwing dragonfly (interestingly, one of the BugLady’s Facebook friends also posted a shot of an Amberwing perched on a Jade Clubtail).   

The BugLady hasn’t seen this species yet – thanks, as always, to BugFan Freda for sharing her pictures.

Clubtails are called Clubtails because the males of many (but not all) species have noticeably flattened and widened segments that form “clubs” on the distal end of their abdomen.ĚýFemales’ clubs are minimal-to-absent.ĚýClubtails are in the family Gomphidae – as a group, the Gomphidae (which also includes Dragonhunters, Snaketails, Spinylegs, and Sanddragons) are medium-sized (1 ½” to 2 ½”), speedy, early-flying dragonflies, some of which like moving water and others of which prefer their water still.ĚýUnlike most other dragonflies, whose eyes meet or nearly meet at the tops of their heads, Clubtails’ .Ěý

Immature Gomphids (naiads) burrow into the muck, with eyes protruding (the better to see their prey, small invertebrates, swimming by, and with the tip of the abdomen exposed, for breathing.

“Gomphos” is from the Greek for nail or bolt, an allusion to their abdomens.ĚýThere are about 100 species in the family in North America and some can be tricky to tell apart (the males’ claspers are diagnostic).

Adult Gomphids often perch and hunt on and near the ground, where despite their spectacular patterns, they can be hard to spot – their sometimes-.  

Both males and females are seen “obelisking” – , which is thought to help with temperature control and which is also used by males as an aggressive posture.

JADE CLUBTAILS (Arigomphus submedianus)are in the genus Arigomphus (the Pond Clubtails), an exclusively North American genus.ĚýArigomphus, prefer their water still.ĚýThey’re a pretty landlocked species, ranging from Texas, north through mid-continent to Wisconsin and Minnesota, where they’re found in lakes, rivers, streams, and mud-bottomed ponds and sloughs.ĚýThey are common in Illinois but have been recorded only in the southern third of Wisconsin.Ěý

Pairs gather on shoreline vegetation.ĚýMales don’t guard females as they oviposit, which, because she lacks a real ovipositor, she accomplishes by allowing water to wash eggs from the tip of her abdomen. A gelatinous sac causes the eggs to stick to rocks and plants.Ěý. They prefer water that is unpolluted and well-oxygenated.Ěý

Spring is coming!

The BugLady