Autumn Meadowhawk at Dueling Creek.

Sympetrum vicinum, Autumn Meadowhawk, basking. Dueling Creek Natural Area, MD. 19 November 2023.

I have written about the Anacostia River and dragonflies a few times before and their importance. Recently I was out freezing my butt off and removing trash from Dueling Creek, when a dragonfly whizzed past and landed. I paddled my kayak over, hopped out into cold, calf-deep mud, and stealthed my way to where the dragonfly had landed. There I found Sympetrum vicinum basking in the sun! I was able to get a couple of documentation photos and respectfully back off without disturbing it.

This is a common species in North America and I have seen them in several places – often far from water in deserts. While this species may not be considered migratory, they do at least wander. Dragonflies of the genera Anax and Pantela typically come to mind when the conversation turns to migratory dragonflies, but some Tramea and Sympetrum species are also known to migrate. It isn’t too far-fetched to assume species with the flight abilities of most dragonflies would be migratory. Also, it is important to remember these are predators – to be successful in a predatory lifestyle requires thought and learning. While brain power is helpful in migratory situations, I think the example of monarch butterfly migration demonstrates that insect migration may still be best explained by invoking magic.

While this was a really cool sighting, it doesn’t mean much from a water quality/habitat stand point because the aquatic larval stage may have occurred in a totally different watershed. It does say that the Anacostia might have a reproductive population of Sympetrum vicinum or at least currently has a source of adults ready to repopulate the river once it becomes suitable habitat.

Dragonflies of the Anacostia River

When we first started paddling on the Anacostia River in late August of 2020, I enjoyed watching the dragonflies hunting over the river. There were the usual suspects: Aeschna, Pantela, Sympetrum, Tramea – and one I did not know. In looking for answers I found Richard Orr’s 2001 survey of the Anacostia River’s Odonata (dragonflies) in which he states: “the surveyed section of the Anacostia River is dead”.

From: The Dragonflies and Damselflies (Insects: Odonata) of the Aquatic Gardens, Kenilworth Marsh, Kingman Lake/Marsh, National Arboretum and the Anacostia River from New York Avenue South to Benning Bridge (Washington, D.C.): With Notes on Butterflies and Other Natural History Observations. Richard Orr 2001

That is quite a statement. However, dragonflies are migratory and Aeschna, Pantela, Sympetrum, and Tramea are genera with strong migratory tendencies, and therefore their presence was not incompatible with Orr’s assessment. They were present, possibly making the best of a bad situation (the DC Metro Area) and heading south. Once I was on the crest of the Cotterel Mountains in Idaho and saw tens of thousands of dragonflies even though the entire mountain range only has a few small springs and is not excellent dragonfly habitat – the presence of adult dragonflies does not mean a habitat supports the entire life cycle. In addition to the migratory hypothesis, there is a more sinister hypothesis: the population sink – adults can live here, but their reproductive output is zero such that replacement of the population can not occur because the habitat is not survivable for larvae.

The mystery dragonfly, Stylurus plagiatus. Dueling Creek, MD. 30 August 2020

The mystery dragonfly was Stylurus plagiatus in the family Gomphidae. I do not know of any gomphids that migrate and this species was not picked up in Orr’s survey. So the potential exists that the river has improved to the point it isn’t dead or that because we are 2 km out of Orr’s survey location the river is entirely different or that this particular gomphid migrates or we are on a population sink.

Exuvia from a gomphid dragonfly, Anacostia River, Bladensburg Waterfront Park, MD. 27 August 2022.

Just to recap for you civilians out there, the life cycle of Odonata is: egg, larva, adult. Each stage of the life cycle has needs that must be met. The larva and adult are predatory and the larva is aquatic. Being aquatic predators (I had dragonfly larvae that ate small fish in my aquarium as a kid), dragonfly larvae have pretty exacting requirements of their habitat. So finding exuvia (the shed skin as a dragonfly transitions from larva to adult) from a gomphid dragonfly on the dock pilings at Bladensburg Waterfront Park could only happen if the larva in question managed to complete its larval stage in the Anacostia River!!

The Anacostia is no longer dead for odonates or at least one larva made it to adulthood.

This story is not over yet.

Hooray for bad photographs!!

A certain friend of mine continually emails blur-tastic photos of various natural history subjects, the

Hippodamia convergens

photographs are merely to communicate and do that job well. Another friend takes excellent photographs that discourage most people from ever picking up a camera but inspire entomologic love. There are many sites that will tell you how to take good photographs, but today I am going to encourage you to take bad photographs and share them. There are numerous citizen science projects like: BAMONA, Odonata Central, and Lost Ladybug Project that would be very pleased to share your very bad nature photography. I know that

Coccinella septempunctata

Rebecca at the Lost Ladybug Project seems to be absolutely thrilled to get the data (and eyestrain) from my terrible photos.  These photographs are really bad, but they are good enough to serve as documentation. Some readers will be appalled that I would take, post, and encourage bad photographs – I should strive for excellence. Actually, I have a limited amount of excellence and I am saving it for something really important.

Sometimes your photos will be so poor as to be

Olla v-nigrum

useless. For me these are typically taken during Christmas Bird Counts and serve as the documentation for a rare bird report. I have also taken really bad photos of dragonflies for Odonata Central and some real stinkers of moths for BAMONA – I bet I can take bad photos of almost any taxon. Sure bigfoot-quality photographs may not be the most pleasing to look at, but they can be valuable assets to citizen science projects. An additional benefit to taking lots of bad photos is the practice may eventually help you to take decent photos.

Harmonia axyridis

I used to use my cell phone for 95% of my picture taking. Now I use an old compact camera with sand in the lens mechanism that requires use of a knife to pry the lens in place to begin shooting. I took all of the photographs in this post with my cell phone and submitted them to Rebecca at Lost Ladybug Project. Rebecca was able to confirm the identity of the insects in the photos (because of her super powers) and now these photos are part of the data set. (Were you able to identify all of the ladybugs?)

There is a big wide world out there in need of photo documentation, so get out there and take some really bad photographs. AND don’t forget to share your photos with citizen science projects, they really do benefit from your bad photos. In my role as Idaho State Coordinator for BAMONA, I have seen some really bad photos that have been identifiable and have seen some really good photos I could not identify. I look forward to seeing your bad photography in the future, and won’t be too disappointed as it improves with practice.

A Distribution of Idaho Odonates

George Sims is awesome! I am reblogging this from his excellent Bugs of Booger County blog. George would be very pleased if everybody reading this submitted dragonfly sightings to http://www.odonatacentral.com – it is free and knowing dragonfly occurrence is the first step in dragonfly conservation. BONUS: watching dragonflies and reporting sightings increases your attractiveness to potential mates!