Quidditas

Net in hand, I went to the prairie to look deliberately for Ruby Meadowhawks. At the edge of the prairie, I netted a male White-faced Meadowhawk. Farther out on the prairie, several hundred yards from the last trees, I netted a male Ruby Meadowhawk. I've found them here every year for the last eight years.

This preference in habitat for open prairie contributes to their quidditas, that which makes it the kind of thing that it is. This is just one of a combination of characters and behaviors that makes the mature male Ruby Meadowhawks recognizable in the field. They are also noticeably larger than the closely related White-faced and Cherry-faced Meadowhawks. On the open plains west of the Mississippi River, the wings of the male Ruby Meadowhawks have extensive amounts of color in the basal halves of their wings. This makes them easy to identify, instantly recognizable. Though I must admit I often feel I'm alone in this opinion; most everyone else professes that meadowhawk identification is intractable, not worth the trouble.

I, too, battled an early bewilderment with the red dragonflies. The first Ruby Meadowhawk I caught I submitted to the Minnesota Odonata Survey Project as a Band-winged Meadowhawk (because of the color in the wings). The path forward wasn't clear. For instance, the guide book I used at the time contained mistakes and misidentified images: of the three photographs on the Ruby Meadowhawk page none were of Ruby Meadowhawks! Luckily I had a net, a microscope, and steady populations of red dragonflies nearby to study.

הועלה ב-אוגוסט 7, 2017 03:39 לפנה"צ על ידי scottking scottking

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scottking

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אוגוסט 6, 2017 01:11 אחה"צ CDT

תיאור

Slender Spreadwing, female
St Olaf Natural Lands
Northfield, Minnesota

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scottking

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אוגוסט 6, 2017 12:42 אחה"צ CDT

תיאור

Ruby Meadowhawk, male
St Olaf Natural Lands
Northfield, Minnesota

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scottking

תאריך

אוגוסט 6, 2017 12:34 אחה"צ CDT

תיאור

White-face Meadowhawk
St Olaf Natural Lands
Northfield, Minnesota

תגובות

Ah ha! You didn't mention your success rate with catching the dragonflies -- did you swing and miss at all, or was it a high success day?

@briang -- we need to go up to visit Scott and see some of these meadowhawks. :)

פורסם על-ידי sambiology לפני כמעט 7 שנים

Two swings, two meadowhawks. White-faced Meadowhawks are easy to net. Ruby Meadowhawks not so much, they're much flightier and hard to get near with camera or net. I did miss a darner that was flying overhead, so it wasn't a perfect day.

I'm not certain anyone's ever travelled to Minnesota solely to seek out meadowhawks! But if such a thing comes to pass, I'd love to show you the local hotspots.

פורסם על-ידי scottking לפני כמעט 7 שנים

I'll go. We could concoct a pretty interesting roadtrip out of that.

Scott, when's peak dragonfly season or diversity for Minnesota?

פורסם על-ידי briangooding לפני כמעט 7 שנים

Peak dragonfly season depends on what you're looking for. Most of the gomphids have come and gone, but the meadowhawks and darners are just starting. Of course, everything is pretty much packed up and put away from October to April.

פורסם על-ידי scottking לפני כמעט 7 שנים

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