Perhaps you are conservative in your style and find most dragonflies to be too flashy and colorful for you. If that’s the case, I have a dragonfly for you, the Gray Petaltail (Tachopteryx thoreyi). This large dragonfly is almost monochromatic—its eyes and body are colored in shades of gray and black. When it is perched vertically against the bark of a tree, this dragonfly almost disappears.
This species seems to like to perch on people, especially those wearing gray clothes. It happened to me a few times, but, alas, I was not able to get a shot to document it. I am pretty flexible, but I couldn’t figure out a way to take a photo when Gray Petaltails landed on my shoulder and on my chest.
The Gray Petaltail is so unusual and distinctive that it has its own genus. The Dragonflies of Northern Virginia website described the species in these words: “Our oldest and most primitive dragonfly, species almost identical to petaltails flew alongside dinosaurs during the Jurassic period.” Wow!
Gray Petaltails are uncommon, in part because they are found only in very specific habitats. In order to locate them, you need to find a small, shallow, sun-lit forest seep that is clean and flowing. It’s not likely that you will just stumble upon one of these cool dragonflies. It helps to have a friend who knows where they can be found. In my case, that was fellow blogger and dragonfly fanatic Walter Sanford. Check out his blog for wonderful images and information on Gray Petaltails and lots of other dragonflies.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Benjamin says : “I love this gray dragonfly too!” When I read an edited version of the post, he was thrilled to learn that long ago they lived with dinosaurs. He likes how the dragonfly can “hide on the bark”. On the third enlarged photo he could easily spot the petaltail and said : “There are so many kinds of dragonflies to love”! Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
Lovely portraits, Mike. I love the one of it on the bark, not just because it illustrates the camouflage, but also because of the range of lovely visual textures in the shot.
This is lovely too! Just a heads-up that I got spam ‘likes’ coming back to me yesterday from comments I’d left on your ‘Tattered Beauty’ post and on the Reblog (I had 3 spam ‘likes’ in total).
Regarding the spam, I don’t know why, but I sometimes get a lot of spam, though it is generally directly tied to a post and not to a comment. Sorry you had to deal with that stuff.
One site where I’ve had this happen before, I noticed the site-owner said she was not allowing comments until WP got the issue sorted. It would seem the culprits are back again.
FYI I’ve notified WP of the problem. Cheers, Liz
Nice Mike! I never saw one before. I can see why they blend in to certain backgrounds!