![]() The BugLady is curious about why/how dragonflies and damselflies undergo a color change at the start of adulthood (not just the teneral thing, but juvenile males of some groups start out with female coloration) and again as the adult gets older (pruinosity again). Most insects don’t change color after they reach adulthood (a few kinds of insects molt as adults, but that’s really rare). The colors of teneral dragonflies become more intense as they mature, a process that may take clubtails a week or two to complete. Teneral is a widely-used term that applies to any insect that has just shed and whose exoskeleton is, briefly (and from the same Latin root word) “tender.” In dragonflies, it refers to the newly-emerged adult. The BugLady thinks this is a Pronghorn Clubtail ( Gomphus graslinellus), but BugFans Bill and Gerry have pointed out (thanks, guys) that it’s a teneral, so the ID may stall there. Adult dragonflies are also carnivores Dusky clubtails feed on damselflies they encounter at the pond’s edge. The description of Dusky Clubtail behavior in Mead’s lovely Dragonflies of the North Woods fits perfectly, “When not actively engaged in oviposition, Duskies are likely found far from water, perched in the sunshine on gravel roads, trails or rocks.”ĭragonfly naiads are meat eaters, ambushing smaller aquatic critters from their burrows in the substrate. It’s an early clubtail look for it from late spring through mid-summer in Wisconsin. ![]() The clubless Dusky Clubtail ( Gomphus spicatus) is an Eastern/Midwestern species that’s unusual in that it prefers sand-bottomed marshy/boggy/glacial pothole lakes and ponds instead of running water. Here are two species of Clubtails that the BugLady has photographed in her little corner of God’s Country. Many species are associated with streams and rivers, but a few like still waters.Īccording to the Wisconsin Odonata Survey website, 34 species of Gomphids live or have lived in Wisconsin (there are about 1,000 species worldwide). When it’s time to assume the adult form, they crawl only a short distance from water to do so. They prefer unpolluted, well-oxygenated, gravel-sand-silt-or-litter-bottomed waterways. ![]() The stocky, young Gomphids (naiads/nymphs) tend to burrow shallowly into the substrate, lurking with only their eyes exposed (to spot prey) and the tip of their abdomen (for breathing). Her eggs are often enclosed in a gelatinous sac that sticks to plants or rocks and keeps the eggs from being washed away. ![]() Since she lacks a real ovipositor, her eggs are simply washed from the tip of her abdomen as she inserts it in the water. Clubtails perch on vegetation while mating, but then they separate, and he does not guard her as she lays eggs. They generally rest, hunt and fly close to the ground, but they will perform vertical loop-the-loops when disturbed. Most clubtails have a short flight period during the first half of the dragonfly season. ![]() Most are medium-sized-about 2 to 2 ½ inches long-with unspotted wings and with striped bodies that use the Zebra’s strategy of disruptive coloration as camouflage. What Clubtails have in common is that their eyes (usually green, blue or gray) do not touch each other on the tops of their heads (an arrangement that has been compared to the considerably-more-bug-eyed damselfly group). They can be difficult to tell apart, and the shape of the male’s claspers is often used to differentiate them. The club is more prominent in males, and they will raise the end of the abdomen to display it. Many Clubtail species (but not all) are adorned with three noticeably-flared segments at the end of their abdomen that give them their name (a few non-Gomphids sport clubs, too). The Clubtail family (Gomphidae) includes the dragonhunters, snaketails, spinylegs, clubtails, and sanddragons. The BugLady misses them already, and hopes to salt the winter BOTWs with a few dragonflies as a reminder of sun and heat. Dragonflies are absent from our landscape now, except for the occasional, well-insulated, late Meadowhawk. ![]()
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