The first is a dragonfly - some sort of mosaic darner to be more specific. After lots of reading and photo-referencing, I'm going to say it's a Shadow Darner, though I would love to be corrected if you know differently! I do have other photos of the entire insect, if anyone fancies the challenge. I really do need to get myself a better dragonfly field guide...
Shadow (?) Darner (Aeshna umbrosa)
The second creature of the day is a tiny moth that I can't find in any of the books I have (though as previously mentioned, my library is far from complete). It's a good-looking creature, but I have no idea what it is! Photographed in the Guelph Arboretum.
Unknown Moth
That's all for now!
Kyle
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ReplyDeleteHey Kyle,
ReplyDeleteThis an exciting opportunity to use my "Photo Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Southernwestern Ontario" according to the guide it is a Lance-tailed Darner because it has no black marks on the sides of the yellow spots like the Shadow Darner does. But I could be wrong!
- Kristen
http://naturatours.blogspot.com/
Interesting! My field guide didn't even mention that feature. I ruled out Lance-tipped primarily because of this description:
ReplyDelete"Anterior [lateral thoracic stripe]...slightly notched on both front and rear borders, the posterior expanded dorsally."
Though I certainly wasn't 100%, and my guide isn't very good! Oh the mysteries of dragonflies!
Kyle
Hi Kyle,
ReplyDeleteFirst, I just want to say, nice blog you have here!
Now, on to that Dragonfly. The Shadow darner is characterised by having an anterior thorasic stripe that is in the shape of a walking cane or a "7". This is the easiest field mark uses to distinguish it from the other Mosaics. My first though was Black-Tipped Darner because the thorasic stripes are both rather straight and lack any sort of indentation. If you have those other pics of the full body, look at the last abdonimal segment (where claspers are) it should have no blue or green on it at all. If that is the case, then you have a Black -Tipped Darner, a rather common species found across Ontario and Quebec.
Good luck with the I.D
p.s. a great guide to Dragonflies can be found at the Guelph Arboretum, great pocket-sized guide. Also, Algonquin Provincial Park has published an excellent guide book which has come in handy many times!
Chris