Urban Dragon Hunters

Newly described flies...from our yard

2026-01-26T13:38:00.002-05:00

In addition to dragonflies and damselflies, our other entomological interests have leaned toward Hymenoptera (bees and wasps, although not ants), flies, and moths. We've recorded over 750 species of moths on our property, and a fair number are leaf-mining moths. The interest in leaf-mining moths dates back to a paper I wrote in 2017, Native Birds Exploit Leaf-Mining Moth Larvae Using a New North American Host, Non-Native Lonicera maackii.

After that interesting discovery, we began paying more attention to leaf mines. Not all mines are created by moths -- many are also flies, beetles, and sawflies. Identification requires a knowledge of plants -- since the insects are closely tied to particular host families -- and the help of Charley Eiseman and his monumental work, Leafminers of North America.

We began rearing insects from mines we found on our Washtenaw County property. It was not uncommon to be unsuccessful in this endeavor: mines may have already been vacated; the larvae are parasitized by many species of wasps, so often only wasps emerged; we could be thwarted if only females emerged and identification relied on examination of male genitalia; or the larvae or pupae simply did not survive overwinter despite our efforts to maintain proper conditions (including a "beer fridge" theoretically dedicated to them). But we always took photos of the mines and notes on the host plants, mine architecture, frass patterns, phenology, etc. If we were successful, we would send the more interesting specimens to Charley. In addition to his own knowledge, he works with a network of scientists to identify these insects.

Charley's most recent paper was published earlier this month:

EISEMAN, C. S., LONSDALE, O., FELDMAN, T. S., & VAN DER LINDEN, J. 2026. Thirty-three new species of Agromyzidae (Diptera) from the United States and Canada, with new host and distribution records for 154 additional species. Zootaxa 5745(1): 1-265.

As the title indicates, it is exclusively about leaf-mining flies, discussing new rearing records and hosts, and describes some new species. We were excited to find that our specimens or rearing information were included in 5 of these accounts. The most interesting were two newly described species and one first North American record. These are summarized below, along with a few photos of the mines (the flies themselves are small, and rather non-descript).

NEW SPECIES: Phytomyza cicutiphaga Eiseman & Lonsdale sp.nov.

Leaf mines of paratypes of Phytomyza cicutiphaga
on water hemlock, Lodi Twp., Washtenaw Co., MI

This species is described from specimens collected in 1975-1976 from mines in Western Water Hemlock (Cicuta douglasii) in Alberta, Canada and specimens we reared from our property in 2019 from Eastern Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata).

There are no other specimens or localities listed in the paper, and our specimens are among the paratypes.

The authors note that there are photographs of mines similar to that of P. cicutiphaga (which are different from the mines of the other water hemlock miner, P. cicutella) from several northern states and provinces, but state that examination of adult genitalia is required for positive identification.

Our specimens (n=6) are in the Canadian National Collection.

NEW SPECIES: Liriomyza lobeliae Eiseman & Lonsdale sp.nov.

Leaf mines of Liriomyza lobeliae on
Cardinalflower, Lodi Twp., Washtenaw
Co., MI

We have been finding mines on Lobelia leaves in our yard since 2019 on Cardinalflower (L. cardinalis), Great Blue Lobelia (L. siphilitica), and Indian Tobacco (L. inflata). We could see that the larvae in the mines were flies, but despite many attempts, we were unable to rear them to maturity. We did get some parasitic flies, photos, and notes.

Eiseman and Lonsdale described this new species from 6 specimens from L. cardinalis from the Chicago Botanic Garden. In addition to the photographs of mines from our yard (the only records from Michigan), other photographed mines included in the species description were from Minnesota, Ohio, Ontario, and North Carolina. The authors concluded that although all the Lobelia species are common in New England, for example, no mines have been reported in that region, leading them to believe this fly may have a limited distribution. We'll be trying to rear these again in 2026 so that additional specimens are available for study.

NEW FOR NORTH AMERICA: Phytomyza spinaciae Hendel

Pupa of Phytomyza spinaciae on the underside of
a leaf of Cirsium discolor (the mine is on the
upperside of the leaf). Photos of mines alone
can't be assumed to belong to this fly without
evidence of this type of pupa. Lodi Twp., Washtenaw
Co., MI

Since 2017 we have found leaf mines in various thistle species, including native Swamp Thistle (C. muticum) and Pasture Thistle (C. discolor), as well as non-native Canada Thistle (C. arvense) and Bull Thistle (C. vulgare). I've reared flies from thistles from both the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus in Wayne County and from our property in Washtenaw County.

Our 10 specimens, along with quite a few others from Michigan and other states, represent the first confirmed North America records for this European fly. The first reports of mines were from Wisconsin in 2014. In addition to thistles, these flies also use knapweeds (Centaurea) as hosts in North America, but might also use burdocks (Arctium), Carduus, or related species, so we're keeping our eyes peeled to obtain new host records.

Our specimens are in the Canadian National Collection.

We can't emphasize enough how generous and helpful Charley and his work have been over the years. Every time we think we just don't have the bandwidth to pay attention to or try to rear more leafminers, Charley provides incentive and inspiration. We encourage you to visit his blog and Patreon page to get your own dose of motivation.

MSU article highlights our role as curators

2025-12-21T09:00:00.002-05:00

An article on the Michigan State University Entomology Department's website is an example of the kind of work we do as Adjunct Curators in MSU's AJ Cook Arthropod Research Collection (ARC) and managers of the Michigan Odonata Survey (MOS).

The article describes our role in acquiring, verifying, processing, databasing, and integrating a donated insect collection into the ARC. In addition to making and confirming identifications of Odonata already in the ARC and making sure the data is correct in both the MOS and ARC databases, we acquire specimens from watershed groups, state and local agencies, and private collectors. The process outlined in the article is more or less same each time. However, most batches are fewer than 100 items, so this donation of over 750 adult Odonata from John Douglass was one of the larger groups we've worked on.

"New" state record: Western Red Damsel (Amphiagrion abbreviatum)

2025-08-12T08:34:00.004-04:00

The conundrum of red damsels in the genus Amphiagrion has been going on for years. Are there two species (Eastern - A. saucium, and Western - A. abbreviatum)? Or is there a third species (A. 'mesonum') as was thought by Leonora "Dolly" Gloyd? Or is it all one species, with a cline from west to east?

Pair of Eastern Red Damsels (Amphiagion saucium), Livingston Co., MI

Montgomery (1943) noted that Eastern and Western "forms" could not be properly assigned to species, and somewhat arbitrarily designated all red damsels from northwestern Indiana as Western and the rest of the state as Eastern. Kormondy (1957) commented on a "zone of overlap" between the Eastern and Western forms, gave some measurements, but concluded that morphological features were more important than measurements. O'Brien (1999) brought up Gloyd's unfinished work on the third species and said Michigan had what appeared to be intermediate forms; he lumped all Michigan records into Eastern Red Damsel for the purposes of the Michigan Odonata Survey. Donnelly (2001) lamented that many records from the Great Plains were simply assigned to Western Red Damsel without examination and reiterated that the taxonomy of Amphiagrion was not resolved. Daigle and Pilgrim (2014) attempted to tackle the problem with DNA (but did not specify methods such as which gene regions were used) and concluded that Western Red Damsels occur to the Indiana/Ohio border...but that red damsels from western Ohio, Michigan, and Tennessee were identical genetically to those from New York and Vermont.

This is by no means a complete bibliography of thoughts published on this topic. Ken Tennessen has worked up color and morphology differences based on nearly 200 individuals (unpublished, pers. comm.). We've contributed to that effort by looking at dozens specimens at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ) and Michigan State University, including many that Gloyd identified as A. 'mesonum' (her manuscript and notes on how she came to these conclusions has not been found).

We utilized Ken's latest matrix of 2 color features, 7 measurements, and 1 structural characteristic -- some are a bit subjective and a few overlap. We determined that there were some Michigan vouchers that are strong enough candidates to be called Western Red Damsel, and so we have added this species to the Michigan checklist.

First, we found 4 males collected in July 1973 in Houghton County by John Perona. They were in his large collection of mostly Lepidoptera donated to the Albert J. Cook Arthropod Research Collection at Michigan State University. It included many pinned Odonata of which a large portion were unidentified; as curators of this part of the MSU collection, we have worked through the Perona material to identify, catalog, and database the Michigan Odonata.

One of the Western Red Damsels from the Perona collection at Michigan State University.

Another collection we have been working to incorporate into the MOS database is at the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA) in Gainesville. The Odonata collection is not digitized nor do the items have catalog numbers. Earlier this year a student, Anisha Sapkota, was hired to photograph all the adult Michigan Odonata and assign catalog numbers (more on this project in a future post). We reviewed the daily output for those we wanted to obtain on loan. This was one of those items:

These 4 males from Baraga County were initially identified as the Eastern Red Damsel, but then changed -- we assume by collector Sid Dunkle -- to Western Red Damsel. We confirmed the latter identification.

While the eight males above seem to be the best fit for Western Red Damsel, additional work needs to be done to shed light on the distribution of Amphiagrion across North America and in particular in the middle of the U.S. There are not enough recent specimens to work with, particularly from the Great Plains, western Great Lakes, and Ohio River Valley. And specimens will be necessary to take meticulous measurements of various parts of these tiny insects, and to have the material to do additional DNA work utilizing multiple genetic regions.

We are currently working on pulling this project together.

Literature cited:

Daigle, Jerrell J. and Erik Pilgrim. 2014. Amphiagrion (red damsel) update. Argia 26(1):19.

Donnelly, Nick. 2001. Taxonomic problems with North American odonata species - a last appeal for information. Argia 13(2):5-10.

Kormondy, Edward J. 1957. Records of western Odonata with notes on Amphiagrion abbreviatum (Selys). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 30 (3): 108-110.

Montgomery, B. Elwood. 1943. The Distribution and Relative Seasonal Abundance of the Indiana Species of Agrionidae (Odonata-Zygoptera). Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, 53:179-185.

O'Brien, Mark F. 1999. Changes to the 1999 Michigan Odonata list. Williamsonia 3(2):4-5.

New Wayne County records

2025-08-09T13:03:00.008-04:00

(Updated 11 Aug 2025)

~~Several~~ Four new species have been added to the Wayne County checklist in 2025, based on both field work and discovery of a specimen in an institutional collection.

Here is a mid-2025 update:

Blue-faced Meadowhawk, Sympetrum ambiguum. This is an interesting species to us, one that occurs south of Michigan and apparently breeds just across the border in Ohio. We looked at all 15 specimens in the MOS database, all housed at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ). There were 9 nymphs, 2 exuvia, and 4 adults. All the nymphs, one exuvia, and 3 female adults were all misidentified. The two remaining specimens were a correctly identified adult male from Washtenaw County from 1919 collected by Mary Elizabeth McCormick, and an exuvia also from Washtenaw County from 1997 collected by Ellie Shappirio that had measurements and characteristics that fit Blue-faced but had some overlap with other species; we left it as okay for now.

On 23 July, we were on a trail close to a very slow, vegetated section of the Huron River. There were surprisingly few meadowhawks anywhere -- we had already been around the pond not far from the nature center and worked our way to the river. A meadowhawk flushed from near the ground and perched on a stick. The abdomen was very clearly ringed, rather than having triangles. We netted this teneral male for the first county voucher. The specimen is deposited in the Albert J. Cook Arthropod Research Collection at Michigan State University.

Meadowhawks are so ubiquitous and many are difficult or impossible to ID in the field that many people don't pay close attention to them. However, the ringed abdomen is distinctive and it's worth keeping an eye out for this species, especially in the southern part of the state. This individual was not mature, so it's possible this species is breeding in Michigan, or it could be an Ohio stray.

First Wayne County voucher of Blue-faced Meadowhawk. Photo by Darrin O'Brien.

Black-shouldered Spinyleg, Dromogomphus spinosus. This is a species we've seen several times in the county since 2010. At Oakwoods Metropark on 23 July shortly after our successful Blue-faced Meadowhawk find, we continued on the trail along the Huron River. We flushed a large gomphid. When it perched again we gave it a look and remarked, rather nonchalantly because in many places this is a pretty common species, that it was a Black-shouldered Spinyleg. It took a moment for it to dawn on us that there were still no vouchers for the county. It landed close by again, but we missed netting it.

We also saw some interesting river cruisers (Macromia sp.) on the Huron River farther upstream at Lower Huron Metropark. Examining some in the hand was our main goal for a return trip on 2 August, so we brought along a cadre of friends.

Along the river are Darrin O'Brien ("Stylurus", the Urban Dragon Hunter); David Marvin; and Dr. Anthony Cognato, professor of entomology and arthropod collections manager at MSU. In the foreground are Jordy Hernandez, one of Anthony's former graduate students and lead author of a great paper on the striped emeralds; and John Douglass, former president of the Great Lakes Entomological Society.

We saw very few dragonflies at all along the trails. If one were interested in a study of Blue-fronted Dancers (Argia apicalis), though, this would have been heaven. As Jordy and I were chatting about some non-Odonata topic, a gomphid landed right in front of us. It flushed and flew a short distance away, where it was confirmed to be a Black-shouldered Spinyleg. David was closest so we let him to the honors of snagging it for a first county voucher, also now deposited at MSU.

David Marvin gets the first county specimen of Black-shouldered Spinyleg (Dromogomphus spinosus). P.S. David is always smiling and happy!

As far as Macromias, on 23 July we saw many and netted a handful, including at least one that was quite intriguing. But between then and our return trip with reinforcements on 2 August, a heavy rainfall raised the water levels substantially, and there were hardly any Macromias patrolling the river.

However, Darrin and David went back to the metroparks again on 10 August, and nearly immediately David netted a male Swift River Cruiser, Macromia illinoiensis. This is also a species that we've seen on occasion over the years, but never vouchered.

First Wayne County voucher of Swift River Cruiser. Photo by David Marvin.

The last new species for Wayne County is Taiga Bluet, Coenagrion resolutum. This damselfly is widely distributed across the state, but there are more records farther north, as the name implies.

Earlier this year, John Douglass funded a student, Anisha Sapkota, to photograph all the adult Odonata housed collected in Michigan at the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA) in Gainesville -- we will writing more about that in another post. The Odonata collection is not digitized nor do the items have catalog numbers, so adding them was part of the project. Anisha uploaded the photos she took each day, and we reviewed them for those we wanted to obtain on loan, and then proceeded to transcribe each item to include in the MOS database. I was surprised to see this turn up in the queue:

We'd never heard of H.J. Hubbard, although Henry Guernsey Hubbard is well-known to us and other students of entomological history. We have other items in the MOS database he collected in the late 1870s.

We obtained the item on loan, and confirmed it was indeed correctly identified as a Taiga Bluet. To find this species in Detroit in the late 1970s seemed hard to believe. We noted that the collector tag in the image looked suspiciously vintage to us. When we got the item, we looked at the reverse side of the other tag in the envelope (visible in the image above at the end of the abdomen of the damsel, but facing down). It read "Detroit 29.5.74". Whoever typed up this card assumed the wrong century. In vetting specimens from many collections, we have found this mistake to be very common. The handwriting and faded nature of the tag made it easy to mistake the 74 for 79. But indeed, Henry G. Hubbard and Eugene A. Schwarz collected insects in Detroit in May 1874, as documented by several biographies as well as specimens in a number of collections, most in the U.S. National Museum.

Further, I could find nothing about a "H. J." Hubbard, even doing extensive genealogical research. The tag clearly says "H.J." but perhaps it was a misprint and used anyway. This seems curious given that the Hubbards were a very well-off family. However, this peculiar middle initial switching has also appeared in a few published papers that refer to H. G. Hubbard as "H. J.", including one by his friend and graduate advisor Herman Hagen, who surely knew who he was talking about, even if whomever transcribed his manuscript (likely written in longhand) for publication did not.

Hubbard was a fascinating person and there are Odonata records of his from Michigan we have set aside to research more thoroughly. It's another item on the to-do list that will receive a separate blog post when it gets the attention it deserves.

The Wayne County checklist is now at 96 species verified by voucher specimens.

[No use of photos without permission]

New state record: Great Pondhawk

2024-06-11T13:59:00.003-04:00

David Marvin collected a Great Pondhawk (Erythemis vesiculosa) in Ingham County on 9 June 2024, a first state record for Michigan. Although patterned like the female or young male common Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis), it is larger (closer to a Common Green Darner, Anax junius) with a longer, much more slender abdomen. The hindwing of an Eastern Pondhawk is 30-33 mm, with a hindwing of >38 mm immediately keying to Great Pondhawk in Needham et al. (2014). The Michigan individual has a hindwing measurement of 42 mm. The other portion of the key's couplet (and a diagnostic character in Palacino-Rodríguez et al. 2014) indicates Great Pondhawk has a double row of cells in a particular area of the forewing, which I've pointed to below. Eastern Pondhawks have a single row in this location.

As depicted in David's photo at the top of the post, Great Pondhawks will also perch more often on vegetation rather than on the ground like Eastern Pondhawks. Great Pondhawks are described as agile, aggressive, and apt to patrol more like a darner. It wouldn't be too hard to pass them off as darners or Eastern Pondhawks without a closer look, and in fact some of the extralimital records initially puzzled or surprised the observers, or were discovered "after the fact" from photos.

Erythemis is a largely Neotropical genus. Great Pondhawk ranges from Argentina through Central America and Mexico into the southern and southwestern United States. In the US, it is most common in Texas and south Florida. Occasionally, especially in the past decade, vagrants have been sighted farther north, with more records from Oklahoma, Kansas, and Tennessee. This map is from Odonata Central.

Zooming in on the Upper Midwest, one sees that all the records north of approximately 40.6 N (the southern border of Iowa) have occurred since June 2020. With the exception of the Michigan record, all are sight records only.

There are no records from Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, New York, or Pennsylvania. The two eastern records are south of 40 N, from Arlington Co., VA (2018) and Garrett Co., MD (2023). A number of lists indicate Great Pondhawk has occurred in Missouri, but I've not yet located a source.

As is often the case when southern lentic odonate species move north, there is a lot of speculation on how environmental conditions prompt these movements, especially in light of climate change. We've addressed this issue in two previous papers on southern species we found in the state:

Craves, J.A. and D.S. O’Brien. 2007. Erythrodiplax umbrata (Odonata: Libellulidae): New for Michigan. Great Lakes Entomologist 40:96-98.

Craves, J.A. and D.S. O’Brien. 2011. Tramea calverti (Odonata: Libellulidae): new for Michigan with notes on other new reports from the Great Lakes region. Great Lakes Entomologist 44:78-82

Thus it is significant that this Michigan voucher is the northernmost I have located thus far. The next closest is from Leavenworth Co., KS from 1936, which is about 450 km south of Ingham Co., MI.

We will again be working with Dr. Anthony Cognato at Michigan State University to use DNA analysis to see if we can determine the population origin of this individual by comparing genetic markers with other Great Pondhawks from Florida and Texas, for example. This may be able to help us connect environmental conditions such as drought in a particular region as a trigger for dispersal.

I want to note that we cannot conclude that this individual came directly from a southern population, however. Great Pondhawks fly nearly year-round in tropical latitudes and much of Texas, with a peak in late summer and fall. With over 50 records, mostly after 2006, Oklahoma dates range from 2 April to 11 August (Smith and Patten 2021). Further north, discerning true flight periods is more difficult, because we don't know whether they are dispersing from somewhere distant, or recently emerged from a closer locale. In his book Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas and the South-Central United States, John Abbott notes that the pseudostigmas of "young" individual Great Pondhawks are green. Here is the Michigan individual:

While I have yet to research the timing of color change in the pseudostigma, perhaps the green color and the relatively fresh appearance of the Michigan individual may suggest it did not travel hundreds of kilometers prior to its Michigan arrival, but came from a closer breeding population. Another molecular technique, stable isotope analysis, could help us greatly narrow down the latitude where this individual emerged. This can offer further insight into the population dynamics of this species, whether we determine that it made an impressive long-distance movement from a distant region, perhaps due to weather or environmental conditions, or came from a pioneer breeding population further north.

We are often asked why we put so much emphasis on (targeted) collecting. The issues discussed here point out the value of specimens in providing answers to questions far beyond just the confirmation of identity, with implications crucial to invertebrate conservation. This specimen will be deposited in the Michigan State University Albert J. Cook Arthropod Research Collection, where we are adjunct curators of Odonata.

I can't say that this addition to the Michigan list surprised me. In fact, just hours before David's text to us about his find, Darrin and I were talking about the potential to find Great Pondhawk in Michigan -- I even had a little file that I started a few years ago when they began to pop up in the region. But, it's early days and there is further background research to do. We will be working on a paper for submission to a journal once we map out a plan and execute lab analyses. Congrats again to our friend David!

Literature noted

Abbott JC (2005) Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas and the South-Central United States. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

Needham JG, Westfall MJJ, May ML (2014) Dragonflies of North America. Third Edition. Scientific Publishers, Gainesville, FL.

Palacino-Rodríguez F, González-Soriano E, Sarmiento CE (2014) Phylogenetic Signal of Subsets of Morphological Characters: A Case Study in the Genus Erythemis (Anisoptera: Libellulidae). Caldasia 36(1):85-106.

Smith BD, Patten MA (2021) Dragonflies at a Biogeographical Crossroads, the Odonata of Oklahoma and Complexities Beyond its Borders. CRC Press, Boca Raton, London, New York.

Finally another Wayne County record

2023-11-20T09:30:00.004-05:00

It's been 10 years since we published our Wayne County, Michigan checklist, and this past decade it has stood at 90 species supported by voucher specimens. We moved out of the county 11 years ago, and have concentrated our efforts elsewhere. We have visited some of our old haunts more recently, but this very urban county has seen still more development, further lessening the opportunity for discovering new species, or even seeing many previously recorded ones.

This is not to say that vouchers have not been added to the Michigan database we are working on. As we explained in our Plains Emerald post, we've been working with various watershed groups to identify the odonate nymphs they collect during their water quality surveys. We've incorporated these identifications into our data, and thus have acquired dozens of data points for nymphs in Wayne County, primarily from material from Friends of the Rouge and the Huron River Watershed Council.

We've also been looking through the collections, both of adults and nymphs/exuviae, at the University of Michigan. We've been aware of a record of a nymph of Springtime Darner, Basiaeschna janata, for the county, but we've never been able to locate it. It is a species that was on our "hypothetical" list, because we have a sight record from Livonia in 2006.

Looking for particular immature specimens among thousands of vials in hundreds of racks.

We finally came across the vial with a late instar nymph last week, stuck in a box of miscellaneous stuff rather than filed in the racks with the rest of the Aeshnidae.

The long-lost vial.

We confirmed the nymph is, indeed, Springtime Darner. Unfortunately, there is no location on the tag, and we have no information or other data from this collector, although we've searched all taxa across many collections in data aggregators. We suspect the tag in the vial is not the original, as it looks to be written by Ethan Bright, who did the initial identification. Since this isn't a particularly rare or unusual species and expected in the county, it is now tallied as the 91st on the Wayne County checklist.


This Springtime Darner was netted in Livingston County in 2018.

An update on the state record for Argia translata

2023-11-11T11:52:00.000-05:00

In a previous blog post, we discussed the addition of Dusky Dancer (Argia translata) to the Michigan list. Our first "discovery" of this species for the state was two adult specimens cataloged in the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ) collection: a female collected on 25 June 1957 and a male collected on 7 July 1957, both by Rodger Mitchell at the University's E.S. George Reserve in Livingston County.

We looked for these specimens at UMMZ, but couldn't locate them. Thus, we went in search of this species. On 10 September 2019, we collected a male on the Huron River at Bandemer Park, Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County.

Male Dusky Dancer, Huron River, 10 Sep 2019.

We have also collected this species elsewhere on the Huron River in Washtenaw County, as well as the Saline River in Monroe County.

Recently, we've been working much more in the UMMZ collection. We decided to try looking for the 1957 Livingston County vouchers again. An additional motivating factor was that we have also been working with a lot of data from the E.S. George Reserve, and there are many ponds but no creeks or rivers there. Consequently, there are only a few Argia specimens, and they are all Variable (Violet) Dancer, Argia fumipennis, a species often found away from water.

In the drawer of Argia translata specimens, we found a triangle for a Variable Dancer whose data and catalog number matched one of our missing Dusky Dancer specimens.

The data sheet for the missing male "Argia translata" along with the paper triangle and matching catalog number. The triangle correctly labels it as Argia fumipennis violacea.

The damselfly in the triangle was indeed a male Variable Dancer. Although it was fragile and lacked color, you can see in the photo below that the abdomen was largely pale where it is largely dark in Dusky Dancer, and the pattern on the final segments also does not match.

The correctly identified, incorrectly cataloged specimen.

Last abdominal segments of a male Argia translata.

We did not locate the other missing voucher in the drawer of Argia translata specimens; once we found this one we only skimmed through the rest. We suspect that someone may have been entering data for Argia translata and, because this correctly labeled triangle was in the wrong drawer, just entered it as A. translata. This would be an unusual species for this location, and we are pretty confident the other missing item is not A. translata.

Therefore, the male we collected in 2019 is the first state record for this species.

Plains Emerald -- new for Michigan

2023-07-11T16:16:00.001-04:00

Update: Our article on this new additions has been published in Argia, a publication of the Dragonfly Society of the Americas. You can read the paper here.

Plains Emerald (Somatochlora ensigera) is found primarily west of the Mississippi River. Eastern records come from three U.S. states (Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio) and one Canadian province (Ontario, although there are multiple records from western Ontario and provinces further west). There are no previous Michigan records.

As part of our efforts to document the distribution of Michigan Odonata, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE; formerly the Department of Environmental Quality) has been sending us nymphs collected during their watershed surveys. These surveys only identify aquatic macroinvertebrates to family, so Darrin has been spending winter days identifying as many to species as possible, and we've garnered many new county-level records form these efforts.

Several nymphs collected by EGLE's Elizabeth Stieber in August 2022 in southern Menominee County in the western Upper Peninsula were highly suggestive of Plains Emerald. Many traits, particularly measurements and ratios, were difficult to discern on these early to mid-instar individuals, so we didn't want to make a definitive call on ID.

The nymphs went next to Anthony Cognato and Jordy Hernandez at Michigan State University for DNA sequencing as part of a larger project on Somatochlora phylogeny. Two of the nymphs were a match for Plains Emerald, based on reference material from Minnesota. DNA could not be sequenced from a third nymph.

The two matching nymphs were from the Little River southeast of the town of Wallace, ~8 km east of the Wisconsin border. The third nymph was from Kelley Creek, northwest of the town of Birch Creek and ~5.5 km east of the Wisconsin border. The closest record of Plains Emerald to these Michigan locations is from 1988 in neighboring Marinette County, Wisconsin.

Collection site of two Plains Emerald nymphs on the Little River, Menominee County, Michigan
Photo by Elizabeth Stieber.

This brings the Michigan checklist to 170 species based on voucher specimens.

Further reading:

Beckemeyer, R. 1998. A brief history of the Plains Emerald - Somatochlora ensigera. Argia 10:17–20.

DuBois, R. B., and K. J. Tennessen. 2008. Nymphal habitat of Somatochlora ensigera Martin (Plains Emerald). Argia 20:9–11.

Williamson, E. B. 1912. The known Indiana Somatochloras (Odonata). Entomological News 23:152–155.

Williamson, E. B. 1922. Indiana Somatochloras again (Odonata, Libellulidae). Entomological News 33:200–207.

Michigan's new threatened and endangered species list

2023-03-21T12:08:00.000-04:00

Every few years, the state of Michigan tasks various committees of experts with reviewing threatened and endangered species, as required by law. The past two cycles one of us (Julie Craves, a.k.a. Nannothemis) has been a member of the Insect Technical Advisory Committee. The committee works to form recommendations on elevations, downgrades, additions, and subtractions to the list, which then goes through a review process that includes internal review and public comment before being signed into law.

There were multiple changes made to the list of Odonata in the recommendations submitted in 2014-2015, but they were not acted upon by the state for various (mostly political) reasons. The Whitmer administration called for an update and the Committee once again revised the list, and submitted changes in September 2019. After delays related to Covid, the state list was finalized and signed into law on 20 March 2023. The entire state threatened and endangered species list including all species can be viewed here.

The Odonata list is below. On the Michigan Odonata Survey rare species webpage, we have other conservation-oriented lists of Odonata in the state.

Endangered
Hine’s Emerald – Somatochlora hineana Williamson no change
Russet-tipped Clubtail – Stylurus plagiatus (Selys) – elevated from special concern
Gray Petaltail – Tachopteryx thoreyi (Hagen in Selys) – elevated from threatened

Threatened
Tiger Spiketail – Cordulegaster erronea Hagen in Selys- elevated from special concern
Alleghany River Cruiser — Macromia alleghaniensis Williamson – new to list
Pygmy Snaketail – Ophiogomphus howei Bromley – no change
Elusive Clubtail – Stylurus notatus (Rambur) – elevated from special concern

Special concern (no legal protection)
Extra-striped Snaketail – Ophiogomphus anomalus Harvey
Incurvate Emerald – Somatochlora incurvata Walker
Riverine Clubtail – Stylurus amnicola Walsh
Laura’s Clubtail – Stylurus laurae Williamson

Removed from special concern
Smoky Rubyspot – Hetaerina titia (Drury)
Splendid Clubtail – Gomphurus lineatifrons (Calvert)
Rapids Clubtail – Phanogomphus quadricolor (Walsh)
Ebony Boghaunter – Williamsonia fletcheri Williamson
Ringed Boghaunter – Williamsonia lintneri (Hagen in Selys)

Ohio state-listed species

2022-08-01T15:08:00.000-04:00

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has released their updated list of state endangered, threatened, special concern, special interest, extirpated, and extinct species (whew!). The link to the entire list (PDF) is here. The latest newsletter of the Ohio Odonata Society summed up the additions, upgrades, downgrades, and deletions for odonates:

Michigan's list is overdue for an update, and a brief explanation, the current Michigan list as well as other rare species and those of conservation concern, can be found on the rare species page of the Michigan Odonata Survey website.

Be on the lookout for southern species this year!

2022-06-26T20:04:00.004-04:00

This seems to be the year to keep an eye out for unusual species in the northern states.

In the previous post about the Band-winged Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax umbrata), we noted recent observations by others of Double-ringed Pennant (Celithemis verna) in Jackson County, Michigan, and Golden-winged Skimmers (Libellula auripennis) and a Little Blue Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax miniscula) near Toledo, Ohio. Recently, there was also a Great Pondhawk (Erythemis vesiculosa) in Minnesota and a Flame Skimmer (Libellula saturata) in Wisconsin.

Since then, a number of Great Blue Skimmers (Libellula vibrans) were noted in Wisconsin and other states in the northeast. We vouchered the first Great Blue Skimmer for Michigan in Wayne County in 2005 (blog post here and paper here). We have had them elsewhere in Wayne County, and also in Monroe County. Julie saw one in the wet woods on our property in Washtenaw County in 2019 but wasn't able to net or photograph it.

On June 21st, I took my net on my lunchtime walk into our woods in hopes of finding L. vibrans. Immediately, upon arriving at the wet woods, I saw two males fighting in a sunlit area next to the path. However, they flew towards the middle, deeper water area of the Buttonbush swamp.

Wet woods and Buttonbush swamp

I texted Julie that I was coming back for my waders and a long-handled net. I decided to check our neighbor's vernal pools first and had no luck. Then, at the southern end of our swamp, a male was perched above the wet area of sedges.

Male Great Blue Skimmer

No need for the waders or the other net. This was a first voucher for Washtenaw County and the third Michigan county to have the species added to the official list.

On June 22nd, we both went out to our swamp and counted a minimum of 8 individuals, and we couldn't see the entire area at any point in time! All were males; one has to wonder how this many presumably unrelated insects find this specific habitat type -- in a small area -- after dispersing from further south.

Today, June 25th, I decided to search in Tecumseh at Indian Crossing Trails Park since there is potential for a few new species in the county. I spied a Cyrano Darner (Nasiaeschna pentacantha) below the mill race dam, but it stayed in the middle of the waterway (as they usually do). I then began checking some seeps and wet areas in the middle of the park as I've wondered if they could harbor spiketails (Cordulegaster sp.). Again, no luck, but then moved up from the seep area to the wet woods.

To my surprise, there was a flurry of activity with multiple Great Blue Skimmers flitting about in the dappled sunlight. Working my way around the muck while taking on the black mess in my boots, I was able to snag one. I then counted at least 10 other individuals!

Male Great Blue Skimmer

This wooded wetland was typical of areas where I've found this species, but it was clearly drying up due to lack of rain. The males sit in the exposed twigs in the sunlight.

~wet woods in Indian Crossing Trails Park, Tecumseh, MI

Lenawee County is now the 4th Michigan County with a vouchered specimen of L. vibrans.

I would have to expect that Great Blue Skimmers could be found across southern MI this year. Look for wooded ponds with dappled light and some open water (i.e. not engulfed by algae or other vegetation). How many more counties can be added with sightings and vouchers?

We'll also need to be checking open ponds for southern species.

Update: on 6/28/2022, I had a Band-winged Dragonlet (E. umbrata) fly by me while at Crystal Waters SGA in Monroe County.

Band-winged Dragonlet in Lenawee Co.

2022-06-13T07:42:00.004-04:00

On 10 June 2022, I was visiting the Kossey Tract of Ives Road Fen in Lenawee County, Michigan. My focus was finding a Lark Sparrow that had been found the previous day by other birders. While walking the two-track towards the sparrow location, I caught up to other birders and started chatting a bit. Within a minute, an unusual dragonfly flew by that could be described as having a narrow, dark abdomen, and a wing pattern of a male Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia). I quickly turned to watch it fly amongst some low vegetation about 20 feet away. I was thinking I must be mistaken and it must have been a whitetail. I didn't flush it when I tried to find it perched.

My focus for the morning was the sparrow so I continued on, but mentioned to the other birders that I had suspected that dragonfly was a rare species for Michigan. After 20-30 minutes, I did find the male Lark Sparrow singing from a young cottonwood a few hundred meters away, then decided to look for the suspicious ode.

Upon returning to the area, I actually found the dragonfly within 10 feet of the location where I had lost track of it over 1/2 hour previously!

It was a Band-winged Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax umbrata)!!!

I was able to take a picture through my binoculars with my phone.

Band-winged Dragonlet "digiscoped" with phone through binoculars

I then tried to creep up to it to get a better photo with my phone. I snapped a couple quick images, but not great quality.

Band-winged Dragonlet with phone from a closer distance

I then lost track of it and spent another hour searching in vain. (Note that I was not carrying a net because collecting is not permitted at Ives Road Fen, which is the property of The Nature Conservancy, without a permit.)

The encounter occurred near the southern edge of the eastern of the two larger ponds in the former gravel pit. I walked the perimeter of both ponds, scoured the eastern pond area, and searched the adjacent upland area while seeing many other species. Some of the notable ones were a couple Comet Darners (Anax longipes), many Carolina Saddlebags (Tramea carolina), a couple Spatterdock Darners (Rhionaeschna mutata), and a likely Cyrano Darner (Nasiaeschna pentacantha).

This is the second sighting for Band-winged Dragonlet (E. umbrata) in Michigan. We found and vouchered one of two individuals we found in Wayne County in October 2007 -- you can read our blog post here and our paper in the Great Lakes Entomologist here.

Band-winged Dragonlet is a southern species that has been seen with more frequency in northern regions since 2007, when there were multiple records across the Midwest. In 2007, they were mostly in late summer and fall, and followed extreme drought in the southern U.S. and were found almost exclusively in ephemeral ponds or water-filled scrapes.

Since 2007, in the Midwest, there have been sightings from 3 Ohio counties, 3 Illinois counties, and 1 Iowa county. Apparently, our voucher in 2007 is the only specimen of the 20 or more observations north of the species' typical range in the last decade or so. It's difficult to determine how many individuals have even been seen -- the photographic records are scattered in several online locations (BugGuide, iNaturalist, Odonata Central, etc.). Some are posted on more than one of these platforms, without a notation indicating cross-posting. Few notes are typically attached to these observations, so it's also hard, if not impossible, to figure out if one individual is being photographed over multiple days at the same place, if there are others present, or how close or far away other occupied sites may be. Teneral dragonlets have occasionally been observed over the years, and a few records are from May and June, like the one reported here, but there is no confirmation of breeding that we have seen. Without sufficient data on habitat, specific locations, the number and sex present, and potential breeding behavior, we can't put these observations in context. A few vouchers, at least, could also go a long way in understanding the origins or relationships of these dragonlets via stable isotope or genetic analyses. We encourage documentation of observations as thoroughly as possible, and vouchers of unusual occurrences.

Other southern species have turned up in/near Michigan in previous weeks such as Double-ringed Pennant (Celithemis verna) in Jackson County, Michigan, Golden-winged Skimmers (Libellula auripennis) and a Little Blue Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax miniscula) near Toledo, Ohio. As we discussed in our dragonlet paper and a previous paper on another southern vagrant, Striped Saddlebags, there is evidence of climate-based changed in Odonata distribution in North America and around the world. We have so much to learn about Odonata distribution, dispersal, and response to climate change! This is an opportunity for all of us to make a contribution.

Important Hine's Emerald discovery

2022-04-29T08:56:00.000-04:00

Hine's Emerald (Somatochlora hineana) is the only federally-endangered dragonfly in the United States. It has very specific habitat requirements in certain types of fens or calcareous wetlands. Last summer, Michigan State University's Anthony Cognato encountered two female Hine's Emerald dragonflies along Lake Michigan in Oceana County, far from any characteristic fen habitats or other populations. If that wasn't surprising enough, genetic analyses revealed the two dragonflies were different from each other and from other populations in Michigan. Our paper was just published in the Bulletin of American Odonatology, the journal of the Dragonfly Society of the Americas.

A link to the full paper is on ResearchGate.

The Blues

2022-02-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

Although with a broader focus, we made four licensed trips to Cuba in the early 2000s that included documenting insects. There are too many interesting things to recount here, but one of several publications that came out of those trips was this one:

Craves, J. A. 2004. Are there populations of the Miami blue, Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri, in Cuba? News of the Lepidopterists’ Society 46(2): 40, 43.

Public domain photo of Miami Blue from Wikipedia

For those of you not familiar with this butterfly, it is a federally endangered subspecies in Florida. At the time of our observation and the others reported in this short note, the distribution of this subspecies was not entirely understood. Its status in Cuba was especially murky, due to the travel restrictions and general difficulty in scientific collaboration between the U.S. and Cuba. An announcement of a new online exhibit on climate change and the Miami Blue prompted me to catch up on what was going on with this insect.

The journal Insecta Mundi, published by the Center for Systematic Entomology, had a long paper that covered the distribution and taxonomy of the Miami Blue and its close relatives from soup to nuts: Are Miami blues in Cuba? A review of the genus Cyclargus Nabokov (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) with implications for conservation management.

In the introduction of the paper, the authors outline history of the lack of consensus on the taxonomy and distribution of these species, in particular Cyclargus ammon (Nickerbean Blue) and C. thomasi (species-level Miami Blue), and their presence (or not) on Cuba. They outline some history of C. thomasi on Cuba and write,

"Craves (2004) also published photographs and reported on the occurrence of C. thomasi, tentatively identified as C. thomasi bethunebakeri, from locations in three Cuban provinces: Matanzas, Ciego de Avila, and Santiago de Cuba. These sources, together with anonymous eye-witness accounts, are mentioned in the Federal Register (USFWS 2012)."

The paper went on to describe a thorough study of museum collections and speciments from all over the Caribbean and, importantly, a recent series of specimens taken at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo. It included extensive documentation of wing patterns and genitalia dissections, and DNA barcoding.

To make a long story short, if it's not too late, they concluded that C. thomasi (and C. ammon) occurs on Cuba, but that the COI haplotype (the DNA "barcoding" gene) of the Guantanamo C. thomasi is closest to C. t. noeli, the subspecies that is found on Hispaniola. They note that other haplotypes may be found elsewhere on Cuba, and that those of the Havana region would be of special interest as they are closer to Florida. I've included links to Google Maps in the quote above to the two approximate locations where I observed these butterflies. They're farther west than Guantanamo but not at the closest points to Florida.

It's always good to find out that our small discoveries and publications have been worthwhile or at least notable to other researchers. This one in particular is special, because the photos in the 2004 publication were taken by our dear friend Steve Habbel, whom we lost in January 2020 to brain cancer. We miss you Dr. Steve, but your memory and work lives on.

An old new species for Michigan: Argia translata

2021-11-27T11:43:00.001-05:00

The most painstaking part of compiling an accurate database for the Michigan Odonata Survey is verifying the correct identification of species that seem rare, in unlikely locations, or collected on unlikely dates. Sometimes these are just errors that occurred when the data was transcribed into the database, but a lot of them have been misidentifications. Access to the specimens in the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ) insect collection has been hampered by the pandemic, as well as the fact that the insect collection has been without a collections manager much of the last 3 years.

One significant finding was made in late 2019, when we became aware of a species that was not included in previous checklists or databases: Dusky Dancer, Argia translata. Two adult specimens were cataloged as being in the UMMZ collection: a female collected by Rodger Mitchell on 25 June 1957, and a male, also collected by Mitchell, from 7 July 1957, both at the University's E.S. George Reserve in Livingston County.

The collection records noted they were "determined" (identified) by Leonora Gloyd. Dolly Gloyd, as she was known, played a central role in the history of Michigan Odonata study. She was associated with the UMMZ for over 60 years -- we will have much more to say about her in the future, but for now you can read a bit about her career in this article. Since she did so much work on damselflies including the genus Argia, we weren't too concerned that the specimens were misidentified. Unfortunately, we could not confirm this, as the specimens were missing at UMMZ. This could be for a number of reasons, the two most likely being that they may have been loaned out and not returned, or they were "misfiled" and ended up in the wrong drawer. The sheer number of specimens at the UMMZ is staggering and it's astonishing how everything is relatively well-organized, especially considering the whole collection was moved from central campus to the present location miles away.

We were now faced with whether or not to include Argia translata on the Michigan checklist without being sure there was physical proof. We made it a mission to find this species. We did so on 10 September 2019, collecting a male on the Huron River at Bandemer Park, Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County. We saw three more just across and down the river at Argo Park canoe launch area, usually perching on a rock just out of net's reach. The following year was lost due to covid, but this year we found them again at Argo, on the same rock, and collected another voucher on 16 August 2021, confirming a population on this stretch of the Huron. A week later, we found them on the Saline River at Wilson Park in Monroe County.

Argia translata has the largest distribution of the 100+ species in this genus, ranging from southern Ontario through to Peru. It the US, it's most common in eastern states, and irregular in the west. Here is the rough estimate of the regional distribution from Odonata Central:

This species is fairly large, mostly blackish-purple, and found in a variety of rivers, streams, ponds, and impoundments, often perching just offshore. The markings can be variable thoughout its range, in particular the amount of pale patterning on s8-10 and some of the thoracic markings on the male. This page has some scans of males.

This is a male from Washtenaw County, and it's pattern and coloration seem typical of those we've found in southeast Michigan. Teneral female Powdered Dancers, Argia moesta, might be mistaken for A. translata and they frequently occur in the same habitats together. An important way to distinguish these species is to look at the forewing pseudostigma and see if there is a crossvein below it -- this is characteristic of A. moesta and is not present in A. translata, as shown below.

Argia translata is the 169th species on the Michigan checklist.

Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need

2021-09-18T12:10:00.005-04:00

There are several different levels or lists of species whose populations warrant some sort of monitoring and/or protections. These include federal and state endangered, threatened ("T&E") and special concern lists; and the species of greatest conservation need generated by the US state-level Wildlife Action Plans. I've served on the Michigan T&E technical committees for birds and for insects since 2014.

More recently, an effort has been underway to compile lists of Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need (RSGCN) to more accurately reflect species' ranges and harness the management power and shared priorities of multiple organizations across regional landscapes. These lists start with all the species listed on each of the states' Wildlife Action Plans, determine which have populations that are primarily within the Midwest region, and then utilize expert opinion regarding concern levels, threats, and other factors. Two of these lists have been completed: the 15-state Southeast Region and the 13-state Northeast Region.

Over the past year, I participated on two taxa teams (birds and Odonata) for the 13-state Midwest Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need sponsored by the Midwest Landscape Initiative of the Midwest Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (MAFWA). There were just 8 experts on the Odonata taxa team; I represented Michigan along with Dave Cuthrell of the Michigan Natural Features Inventory.


13 states in MAFWA region

Data on Canadian provinces were considered although as this is a US-based initiative, representatives from Canada were not involved in the committees. There is also some overlap in US states in the various regions, accounted for in the lists.

Nine Michigan dragonfly species are on the list of Midwest RSGCN; 10 species were designated "Watchlist - Assessment Priority" due to there being concern, but insufficient or variable data across the states; and 2 species (Ebony Boghaunter, Williamsonia fletcheri, and Brown Spiketail, Cordulegaster bilineata) are on the Watchlist but "deferred" to other regions that have greater proportions of the population. I have updated the Michigan Odonata Survey website with the Midwest RSGCN species, where you can see all the species that have some sort of conservation or rarity status.

If you'd like a wider view, take a look at the data table which can be viewed here. The table contains all the data on all taxa from all states. There is the ability to sort and filter, similar to spreadsheets like Excel. To just see Michigan's Odonata, go to Filter and choose Where Taxa is Invertebrates: Dragonflies and Damselflies and add the condition Where MI_Occurs is Yes. You'll see many other ways to filter and sort the list. There are a lot of columns, some of which indicate the various criteria used to make determinations.

The project has a website, where you can view highlights and download the full report with appendices.

If you're interested in the bird list, I've written a similar blog post over at Net Results.

Old books and their stories

2021-08-31T12:21:00.003-04:00

The Urban Dragon Hunters have been very busy. We've done relatively little field work the past couple of years, sadly, but both our field work and research has yielded interesting results which we will be sharing over the next weeks and months.

In the course of some of the research, very old literature was consulted, some of which I was lucky enough to inherit as duplicates or discards. One book, which I honestly never thought I'd have to look at or cite, was the Synopsis of the Neuroptera of North America by Hermann Hagen, published in 1861. You might recognize the name from Hagen's Bluet (Enallagma hageni) or being listed as the author (describer) of many species of dragonflies and damselflies.

My copy is discolored and sports some interesting stains that appear to be dried up mold growth.

Probably the main reason I haven't parted with this volume is that it once belonged to Clarence H. Kennedy, a prolific and accomplished entomologist whose name is memorialized, for example, in Kennedy's Emerald (Somatochlora kennedyi). Nick Donnelly wrote a short biography of Kennedy and his Odonata work in this issue of the Argia (PDF). Kennedy was close friends with an equally notable character, Edward Bruce Williamson, the curator of Odonata at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology from 1916-1933.

Kennedy was also a scientific illustrator, and designed several
of his own bookplates.

This book has marginalia here and there, and also had various notes and sketches tucked into its pages.

My favorite tidbit of history, though, comes from a penciled note at the back of the book. It reads,

"This volume was lot from Stechart for $3.75
was soaked in the Galveston hurricane Aug. 20, 1915
was bound at Raleigh, N.C. Oct. 1918 for $1.50
C.H. Kennedy"

Below it was the note: "Robbers All!"

I believe the original purchase was part of a "lot" of books from the New York book dealer Stechert-Hafner. The hurricane reference certainly explains the condition of the pages. This hurricane (not to be confused with the more devastating Galveston hurricane of 1900) actually struck southwest of Galveston, TX on August 17, but remained a fearsome storm for days, resulting in heavy flooding in the Ozarks and beyond. At the time, Kennedy was working for Cornell prior to attending Stanford University, so I suspect the book endured the hurricane in the possession of a prior owner. As for the postscript on monetary value, it might have been Kennedy himself who wrote it. However, the book was later owned by Williamson; his stamp appears in several places. Thus, this little commentary may have been incribed by him.

I found the information I was looking for in this book, and so much more.

The mystery of baskettails

2021-05-20T09:42:00.001-04:00

Since we are on the cusp of the dragonfly season here in southern Michigan, a quick note regarding the problem with Epitheca baskettails is timely.

As it turns out, "common" baskettails in southern Michigan (and perhaps beyond, it's unknown until more are collected and examined) are not identifiable from photos, and often not in the hand.

The Common Basketail (Epitheca cynosura) hybridizes with Slender Baskettails (Epitheca costalis, which used to be called Stripe-winged Baskettail), but northern populations show much variability in the amount of brown at the base of the wings, as do E. cynosura in this region. We've collected a lot of baskettails around here, and the majority of them are intermediate forms, as diagnosed by Nick Donnelly from NY who works on several cryptic/hybridizing/new species complexes. This probably indicates that the two species are hybrids and produce fertile offspring and, in turn, backcrosses.

The New Jersey Odes website, though inactive, has a nice comparison of Common versus Slender, while acknowledging that field identification is iffy, and the Minnesota Dragonfly website has some nice comparisons of Common, Spiny (E. spinigera) and Beaverpond (E. canis).

Other strange Epitheca's can be found. Here is a post we did (with a link to a short paper we wrote) on a Common Baskettail with extensive dark wing tips.

There is so much to understand regarding the status and distribution of this species complex in Michigan. More specimens are needed, especially across southern Michigan, for future researchers to go examine so that these mysteries can be unraveled.

New Michigan ode paper

2020-11-17T14:06:00.004-05:00

Our paper on a significant new population of the state-threatened Pygmy Snaketail has just been published in the Journal of Insect Science (and is open access and available at the link):

Craves, J.A., D.S. O'Brien, and D.A. Marvin. 2020. New population of the rare dragonfly Ophiogomphus howei (Odonata: Gomphidae) in southern Michigan, United States. Journal of Insect Science, Volume 20, Issue 5, September 2020, 33, https://doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/ieaa125

The journal's sponsor, Entomological Society of America, published a nice write-up of the research on their website.

The mystery of meadowhawks, redux

2019-07-21T09:31:00.001-04:00

I'm a RuWhiChee! Read more here.

In 2010, we posted about the difficulties presented in identifying many Sympetrums, especially in eastern North America. With the increasing popularity of dragonfly ID and photography, and posting same on social media and citizen science websites, we have updated our post with some new data and references. I'll repeat the bottom line here, and you can read more at the original posting:

Over most of eastern North America, the most common meadowhawk species (Ruby, White-faced, Cherry-faced, and Jane's) should not or cannot be identified to species from a photograph -- especially when immature. Often, they cannot even be identified to species in the hand because the structural characteristics of their genitalia are intermediate due to hybridization. In fact, DNA analysis has shown that some of these "species" may not be full species, or may still be undergoing speciation.

Alleghany River Cruiser persists

2019-07-08T07:50:00.000-04:00

In 2014, Stylurus snagged one of several river cruisers at a site in southwest Michigan that proved to be Macromia alleghaniensis, Alleghany River Cruiser. Not only was this new for Michigan, but a little research indicated that it was the most northerly record for this species, as most other records north of 40 degrees were unconfirmed for various reasons, as described in the paper we published (available here).

Download a PDF of this paper here.

Despite multiple visits to the site in the intervening years, we (mostly he!) could not confirm that this species had a sustaining population at this site. Visits took place in mid-June to mid-July, and while he saw river cruisers there in 2016, he was could not net one to see what it was.

We stopped once again on 23 June this year, and were in luck when we saw river cruisers cruising this creek, the same place where the voucher was collected.

The two photos above show each side of the creek at a road crossing.
Water was much higher than in previous years.

The task of netting one was made a little easier when I stood on the road as the patrolling Macromia approached to cross the road to the other side. I could act as a spotter, and the dragonfly would usually turn back if it saw me standing there. In this way, Stylurus was able to net multiple river cruisers, all of which turned out to be M. alleghaniensis. Although we only saw one or two at a time, each time one was netted, another showed up (we held on to them until we were satisfied all were Alleghany before releasing all but two vouchers). We think there were at least 7 patrolling, and likely more. It was satisfying to know that this appears to be a healthy, sustaining population -- especially in a year with so much rain in spring and early summer that the creek was still running high.

I'm just posing here.

Identification and taxonomy of Macromias can be tricky (for a pretty thorough introduction, see Donnelly and Tennessen 1994). As with many ode identifications, structure trumps color pattern. One reliable character is the length of the mesotibial keel, a little "flange" on the middle leg, illustrated in this photo by Michael Moore. Much shorter on Alleghany than on similar M. illinoiensis.

Since our original discovery, a few other states have added this species to their lists after closer examinations of specimens. Two such revelations have been published in Argia: Brown and Thomas (2016) and Patten and Smith-Patten (2016). Links to all these resources are below.

Brown, G., and Thomas, M. 2016. Discovery of the Allegheny River Cruiser (Macromia alleghaniensis) in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Argia 28(2):9.

Donnelly, T. W., and K. J. Tennessen. 1994. Macromia illinoiensis and georgina: a study of their variation and apparent subspecific relationship (Odonata: Corduliidae). Bulletin of American Odonatology 2(3):27-61.

Patten, M. A., and B. A. Smith-Patten. 2016. The Allegheny River Cruiser (Macromia alleghaniensis) in Oklahoma. Argia 28(3):12-14.

Latest Paper on Rediscovered Spiketail

2019-02-02T15:15:00.001-05:00

We published a paper about refinding Tiger Spiketail (Cordulegaster erronea) in the Great Lakes Lakes Entomologist (50(1-2):1-5 · January 2017) a couple years ago. I thought it would be worthwhile to note this paper given similar habitats that may be occupied by Tiger Spiketail and Gray Petaltail (T. thoreyi) that we found at Fort Custer Training Center in Kalamazoo County, Michigan.

Title and Abstract. Note: both Julie Craves and Mark O'Brien have retired from their positions posted

Individuals were initially found on July 3, 2016, and multiple individuals were found in June-July-2017.

female Tiger Spiketail posed along two-track

male Tiger Spiketail perched on sunlit branch

In 2017, I searched habitats near the two-track in order to find potential breeding site(s). The most promising location was south of the area with a seep flowing from the hillside and forming a rivulet. This traveled a couple hundred meters before ending in a marshy / fen area. Further downstream is a large fen area.

close-up of seep likely to be a breeding site

flow into the swampy area

Looking for a Gray Ghost

2019-01-12T18:42:00.001-05:00

Gray Petaltail (Tachopteryx thoreyi) is listed as state Endangered (elevated from threatened in the 2019 review) in Michigan, as noted on the MNFI website. Prior to living in Michigan, I'd only observed the species once. It was an individual that flew by and landed on a bridge over a stream in the knobs of Kentucky.

Over the past several years, we've been searching to confirm this species' presence in some historic locations and other spots suggested by locals. It appears that the petaltail only inhabits the SW area of Michigan, given the records and searches throughout the southern tier of counties. Prime flight season may be mid-June through mid-July. For me, the 3rd weekend of June is prime time.

In recent years, I've visited Berrien, Kalamazoo, Cass, and St. Joseph counties.
Some locations included:

- Grand Mere State Park: I heard petaltails were present in the hillsides near Stevensville in the years prior to the construction of I-94 was constructed. The wetlands in the SE area of the state park were ditched decades ago, but may have seeps which provide habitat. During a couple visits, no individuals were observed, but habitat is interesting.

ditch with seeps in woods

- Warren Woods State Park: There is a 1919 voucher from this location. In 2014, one was observed on June 17, 2014.

male Gray Petaltail on railing of bridge

- Three Rivers SGA: This state land has habitat in Cass and St. Joseph counties. There is a 1989 voucher from Wood Creek in Cass County. Multiple individuals were observed around June 18, 2016, in the same area. Some were hunting over Wood Creek, while others were most easily found perched on conifer trunks in dappled sunlight. Scanning trees with binoculars from the creek seemed to be the best method, but a couple times I had a patrolling/hunting individual fly past along Wood Creek.

female Gray Petaltail perched on snag along Norton Road, Cass County

female Gray Petaltail perched on conifer along Wood Creek, Cass County

Additionally, the habitat along Mill Creek, west of Preston Road in St. Joseph County looks promising. Many seeps and fen habitat is present, but is somewhat difficult to access:

potential petaltail perching sites above hillside seeps

- Dr. T. K. Lawless County Park: I was told this park may have appropriate habitat and when visiting out of season, there were some interesting hillsides that seemed to have seeps along trail #4.

- Fort Custer Training Center: I was informed that that petaltails had been observed in an area of hilly, forested area with seeps. During multiple visits over a couple of years, none were observed. However, other interesting dragonflies were found. It is possible that petaltails are present, but we had no luck.

Two-track adjacent to hillside seeps

- Watkins Lake State Park: Additional searching of prairie fen areas and nearby hillsides may be worth further searching. This may be a bit of a stretch since petaltails have not been found at Ives Road Fen through the years.

Norvell-Manchester Drain, bordered by prairie fen

Gray Petaltails are tough to find in Michigan, even when in the proper habitat. For example, it took six visits before I saw the first petaltail at Three Rivers State Game Area. As time allows in future years, I hope to revisit locations that looked appropriate but didn't turn up any individuals.

A couple new insect papers

2017-09-12T14:33:00.002-04:00

Although not about dragonflies (there is one of those coming out soon), two recently published papers may be of interest to readers if you, like us, are into other insects.

First, who doesn't think the little Handsome Trig is handsome? The population of this cricket is moving north, which we document here. You can read and download a copy of the paper below.

O'Brien, M. F., and J. A. Craves. 2016. Phyllopalpus pulchellus Uhler, the Handsome Trig (Orthoptera: Gryllidae), a confirmed Michigan resident. Great Lakes Entomologist 49:202-203.

Next up is a paper on a leaf-mining moth using a new host in North America, the non-native and invasive shrub Amur Honeysuckle. This paper documents the first regular use of this plant by a specialist insect herbivore; in fact, it has few arthropod herbivores -- generalists or specialists -- anywhere in its range. And native birds have learned to feed on the larvae.

Craves, J. A. 2017. Native birds exploit leaf-mining moth larvae using a new North American host, non-native Lonicera maackii. Ecoscience. 3-4:81-90.

Latest paper on an aberrant dragonfly

2016-09-17T09:47:00.000-04:00

Publications on Odonata (or other taxa, for that matter) with abnormal coloration or pattern are important to help us understand the range of variations within and among species and consider biological and evolutionary impacts.

Our latest note on a weird Common Baskettail was just published in the most recent issue of the Argia:

Craves, J.A. and D. S. O'Brien. 2016. Common Baskettail, Epitheca cynosura (Odonata: Corduliidae), with extensive dark wing tips. Argia 28(3):11-12.

We have a page with all of our ode papers here; and more insect papers as well as other publications can be found at Julie's ResearchGate page.