- August 3, 2024
- by John Reaume
This was our clubs 15th annual outing looking for members of the Order Odonata – meaning the “toothed ones”. Five people joined us at the Bognar Marsh Management area – a beautiful habitat with a boardwalk through a Ducks Unlimited created marsh. It is one of the largest marsh systems in Grey County with the escarpment covered in upland forests as a backdrop.
We were first treated to see an Ebony Jewelwing as soon as we entered the first clearing. The male with his jet-black wings and metallic green body was very much appreciated. We could see how damselflies have a “hammer-headed” look to them with eyes on the end of stocks where as the dragonflies have a more rounded head with their eyes actually touching each other (except for clubtails which we did not see…). Soon a female Ebony Jewelwing was spotted with her white stigma making her stand apart from the male. As we were to see during the hike there is an obvious sexual dimorphism with these creatures with the males often the more colourful and often easier to identify.
Soon we were able to capture and identify a male Eastern Pondhawk and distinguish it from the Blue Dasher because of the Pondhawks white claspers at the end of its bluish abdomen. Though only seen in flight the female Eastern Pondhawk with its lime-green body set against a blackish abdomen made it challenging to claim that the male was more beautiful than her!
We saw many Meadowhawks, the most common of which were White-faced Meadowhawks but we were able to find a few Autumn Meadowhawks with their distinctive yellow legs (all the other types of Meadowhawks have black legs). The clincher in the Autumn Meadowhawks is that the female has a very distinct triangular genital plate!
We had to consult the guides when we captured a Bluet and discovered by the appearance of the claspers that we had a Marsh Bluet. The group then learned about the fascinating topic of mating in Odonates. The ritual includes the male grasping the back of the neck in the females using his claspers at the end of his abdomen. In order to complete mating he would have had to transfer his sperm to his secondary genitalia (the hamulus) before hand. This leads to such behaviours as flying in “tandem” and later completing a “mating wheel’ to complete the process.
We were fortunate that we all got to see this process (that is all but one of us) on the perfect stage where a male after satisfying courtship rituals was able to clasp onto the female forming a “tandem” and the she completed the “wheel” all on the brim of one of our participants visor!
In addition to this performance we were able to get good looks at the violet coloured Variable Dancer and great looks at a Racket-tailed Emerald. Odonates enjoy some of the most enticing names in the animal kingdom…..so be sure to join us next year in our search for these wonderful creatures!
