First of Season

Jim_B · **Posted:** Sun May 03, 2009 3:32 am

I finally got my first of season ode, a female Blue Dasher, Pachydiplax longipennishere in Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA. My second was a Common Green Darner, Anax junius. That was it. Two individuals in about four hours of looking. Better days are coming!

Spectre · **Joined:** Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:11 pm **Posts:** 17

Jim,
Are you sure that is a Blue Dasher? It sure looks different than ours...

Female Blue Dasher

Male Blue Dasher

Jim_B · **Posted:** Mon May 04, 2009 12:48 pm

Good eye!

The first of the year and I misidentified it. I just looked at the face and in a place where Blue Dashers are usually abundant, called it a Blue Dasher.

Upon further review, it is a female Dot-tailed White face, Leucorrhinia intacta

RoyW · **Posted:** Tue May 05, 2009 7:29 am

The similarity with European Leuchorrhinia struck me before I scrolled down - it soon became apparent why that was!
I'm certainly not going to question the species in your revised ID - but are you sure that it's a female? It looks more like an immature male to me (judging by the appendages at the end of the abdomen) :wink:

Some great shots anyway (Spectres Blue Dashers included) - I look forward to seeing more of these of species that we don't get to see on this side of the Atlantic.

Roy.

PS. I was going to post a couple of images of the earliest species that we see - it looks like they need to be uploaded to a website first and linked from there, is this correct?

Jim_B · **Posted:** Tue May 05, 2009 9:41 am

Yes, you need to upload your images to any website like Flicker or the member's gallery here, then right click on it and copy image location. Back here you post by clicking the little Img button, pasting the address, and cliclking the little Img button again. It will look like this .

Code:

[img]http://yourhphotoaddress.com[/img]

I'll check the gender issue later.
Cheers!

Spectre · **Joined:** Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:11 pm **Posts:** 17

RoyW wrote:

Some great shots anyway (Spectres Blue Dashers included) - I look forward to seeing more of these of species that we don't get to see on this side of the Atlantic.
Roy.

Thanks Roy, these were from last year. I have a lot of others that I could post if you would like.

Jim_B · **Posted:** Mon May 25, 2009 11:29 pm

Quote:

but are you sure that it's a female? It looks more like an immature male to me (judging by the appendages at the end of the abdomen) - Roy

I agree it is a newly emerged male. The image I have looks almost identical to the female shown in A field Guide to Dragonflies and Damselflies of Massachusetts but the appendages in that photo may look somewhat misleading due to the bark it has landed on. Other books I have show the appendages in my photo as being male.

Thanks ! I'm off to a rip roaring start of the 09 season :oops:

cwl50? · **Joined:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:32 pm **Posts:** 6

You have my luck Jim!

Very nice images

Clyde

First of Season

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