המועדפים של ophiogomphus

Location Description:

North Georgia Mountain Forest Habitat in a very remote area.
Steep rugged terrain with cascading creeks in the Toccoa River watershed.
Elevations ranged from 3100-4400' in the immediate area.

Photography Explanation:

I shot 99 photos at this puddle party which included numerous individuals of both species with varying numbers at any given time.

This particular sequence was three (3) photos selected from 31 photos shot during a period of 6 minutes: 42 seconds. All photos are of the same individuals.

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Larger size of Specimen:
The second two photos are for size and field mark(s) comparison with the smaller ETS. The Appalachian in the third (3rd) photo was moving and is blurred.

Additional field marks to consider for the Appalachian:

1. Sub-marginal yellow band on ventral forewing is mostly continuous yellow. The yellow dashes almost merge to form a continuous band.
2. Black line(s)/black edging on ventral hindwing is almost straight, not scalloped. Junctions of yellow and black fields relatively straight. Blue band is brighter and wider.
3. Yellow-orange spots along outer edge of ventral hindwing more rectangular than crescent-shaped.
4. Date/flight period (single-brooded), habitat, elevation, known location for the species, fresh condition. See habitat / location information above.
5. Hindwing appears elongated.

@ophiogomphus @stevecollins This might disprove thornbush dashers in Florida, but hopefully not. The body pattern was like the one I found in March, but wing venation is off for thornbush. Thornbush would have an extra forked vein in the little blue circle I drew in the second picture, not found in spot tailed. There was inconveniently a branch in the way of that exact spot in my March observation.

Was initially going to post this as blue dasher the day I took this picture, but I knew it didn't look right from the second I saw the picture. Finally, after over a month of research on this one, I have settled on Thornbush Dasher. Definitely a Bahama individual, pattern matches exactly from what I've seen Bahama females look like. Florida first I believe! I'll keep an eye out for these guys next time I'm in the area, which is Saturday. I only remember seeing one that day, and I haven't seen one like this since, so this may have been a vagrant.

Nice looking purple phase male with a little bit of reddish orange at the tip. Associating with another male garnet glider, some four spotted pennants, some pin-tailed pondhawks, a few hycinth gliders, and a couple blue dashers. Flying about 5-10 feet above the water, which was a narrow body of water, extending out from a lake, with lilypads in it. Not associating with any trees as the higher-flying females and immature males would, but seemed to like flying around a large clump of tall sawgrasses. Never landed, but would glide for a bit and then stop and hover for around 5 seconds before gliding again (allowing me to actually get good pictures showing the color, something I have not been able to do before with this species since my first landed record!). Temperature was about 85 degrees F, sunny with a few clouds. Observed from about 1:00 to 1:25 pm.

MEGA RECORD!!! Palm Beach County first, and I believe a South FL and Eastern FL first as well! Definitely did not expect to see one of these today! Female perched on a snag a bit higher than eye level. Unmistakable abdomen pattern, same wing pattern as garnet glider. Managed to catch her, and I'm still getting over that adrenaline rush as of posting this! This was the only individual of this species I saw today, but I also saw at least 100 garnet gliders.