We're getting into the busy odonata season here in Northeast Tennessee. Hot and sunny are ideal conditions for all the "dragons & damsels." Here are a few samples.
This is a just-emerged (teneral) Ebony Jewelwing. He'll have much darker wings, and a brighter green body in just a few days. This species is one of our most common streamside damselflies. The females have a white spot on the wing-tip.
Here is a common damselfly of the ponds, called Aurora Damselfly. In that 2nd shot, it looks like Mrs. Aurora is a bit uncomfortable with Mr. Aurora's attachment!
And here's one of our tiny damselflies in the forktail group, called an Eastern Forktail. When he flies, all you can see is a green dot and a blue dot!
This is another forktail, a female Fragile Forktail. Like most odonates, they lay their eggs in the water.
But this Swamp Darner doesn't follow the typical trend. They "drill" their eggs into wood. When the eggs hatch, the nymphs will plunge into the water.
It's rare to catch a Common Green Darner when it's not flying. Cool weather helps. This male was waiting for his flight muscles to warm up.
Other dragonflies spend a lot of time perched. Here's a Blue Dasher on his favorite pondside perch…
A male Common Whitetail on his perch...
And a female of the same species perched nearby.
Female Pondhawks sure have some fine camouflage!
Can you see why this group of dragonflies are called clubtails? This is one of the rarer species, confined to a small portion of the Southern Appalachians. It's called a Cherokee Clubtail. We have a healthy population of them at the home park, and work hard to maintain their habitat.
Will end with a few other non-odonate "bug" snapshots. These hot late spring and early summer days are perfect for Tiger Beetles. They're fast-moving and voracious predators, and quite pretty too! (PS - can you identify the seed he's standing on in #2?)
And speaking of pretty, look at pretty Mrs. Dobsonfly! She spent most of her life in a cool stream, also as a voracious predator. But after hatching into her winged adulthood, she won't eat anything!
Hope you enjoyed the Dragons (& friends), and will share your comments and critique!
Originally posted by eaglem 
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