In the Garden Naturalist Class at the South Carolina Botanical Garden we have started to study the insect family Ondonata (on-doe-
nah-ta
1): Dragonflies and Damselflies. We plan to begin an inventory of these animals in the SCBG. As we work on our identification skills we will use this blog to talk about the process of learning about these incredible creatures.
Today we learned about the six families of dragonflies that we have in South Carolina:
- Aeshnidae (eesh-nid-die) -darners.
- Gomphidae (gomm-fid-die) - clubtails
- Cordulegastridae (cor-dew-le-gas-tri-die) spiketails
- Corduliidae (cor-dew-lee-i-die) emeralds or green-eyed skimmers
- Libellulide (lib-ell-yew-lid-die) common skimmers
- Petaluridae petaltail
We needed a way to learn distinguish between these different families of dragonflies. Our initial research on the web and in our entomology guides led us to the conclusion that there are three major differences between families: wing triangles, eye shape and anal loop!
Dragonflies fly fast, are rarely still and are easily startled, we found looking for these small and subtle identifying marks very difficult!
As we started observing dragonflies at the Duck Pond, it became clear that we need to rely on other identifying marks. Color, size and wing markings seemed the most obvious approach. I suspect that as we pursue our study we will learn more about habitat and behavior (some other important ways to firm up identification) but at the moment we know very little.
Day One: June 16th
Time: 9:30am
Weather: Heavy rain last night
Temperature: 70s
Our first sighting. These guy were rarely still.
One did stop for a portrait.
We had several attempts at identifying this one: Painted Skimmer, Golden Winged and settled on Eastern Amber Wing.
A Slaty Skimmer, perhaps?
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A Widow Skimmer?
Heritage Pond
10.15am
80s
This dragonfly stayed and stayed and stayed- I took lots of pictures of him but was especially proud of this one which shows the wing triangles, and the hairs on its thorax!
Possibly a female Great Blue Skimmer.
Leaky Pond
1. Pronounciations - British Dragonfly Society, http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/pronounce.html
The Eastern Amberwing (Perithemis tenera) is a small dragonfly and has a very distinctive look. The body is proportionally thicker, in comparison to the wings, to that of other dragonflies. This specimen has clear, colored wings with black at the tips - a male coloration. In flight and at rest the wings are held apart, separated from each other.
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