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Posts Tagged ‘male Uhler’s Sundragon’

First Dragonflies of 2024

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on April 9, 2024| 6 Comments »

Many people in the United States were excited to view yesterday’s solar eclipse. I too paused for a few moments in the afternoon to view the eclipse through solar glasses that I had obtained last week during a visit to the Air and Space Museum in the Washington D.C. area.

However, I must confess that I was more excited earlier in the day when I had multiple encounters with Uhler’s Sundragons (Helocordulia uhleri), the first dragonflies that I have been able to photograph in 2024. (Some of you may recall that I searched for dragonflies last week and think that I saw one flying over a stream. However, I did not get a photo of the dragonfly, so for me that first sighting does not really “count.)

I spent several hours yesterday looking carefully at the vegetation along a creek in Prince William County, Virginia where I had spotted Uhler’s Sundragons in previous years. This species appears in limited locations in the early spring and is usually gone by early May. Unlike many of the dragonflies that I will see during the summer that are habitat generalists, Uhler’s Sundragons require a specific kind of habitat, usually a mountain stream. According to the Dragonflies of Northern Virginia website, “Uhler’s need clean, small to medium, rocky forest streams with gravelly and/or sandy substrate, and a decent flow.”

I was fortunate to be able to photograph both female and male Uhler’s Sundragons. I have alternated genders in the photos below, with the females in the odd-numbered images and the males in the even ones. One of the ways to tell the genders apart is to look at the tips of the abdomens (the “tails”) and you can see that the terminal appendages are different. The lower portion of the abdomens of the males is also somewhat enlarged, as you can see in some of the photos.

Dragonflies perch in many different ways. Some species perch horizontally and some hang vertically. Uhler’s Sundragons most often perch at an angle, as shown in the first and last photos, though sometimes they may hang vertically from the vegetation.

The dragonfly season has now opened and I look forward to many more encounters with these amazingly beautiful aerial acrobatic insects that have a magical appeal for me.

Uhler's Sundragon

Uhler's Sundragon

 

Uhler's Sundragon

Uhler's Sundragon

Uhler's Sundragon

Uhler's Sundragon

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Late season Uhler’s Sundragons

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on May 16, 2022| 5 Comments »

It is getting late in the season for Uhler’s Sundragon dragonflies (Helocordulia uhleri), so I was particularly happy when I spotted several of them last week while I was exploring a creek in Prince William County. Uhler’s Sundragons appear in early April and their flight period lasts for only a month or so, so it is always a challenge to find them and photograph them for the season.

Both of the dragonflies in the photos are males, judging by the appendages at the tips of their abdomens and their indented hind wings. I think that they are two separate individuals, but cannot be sure, since I spotted them in the same general area.

Some of you may have noticed that I did not do postings on Saturday and Sunday. I try to do a posting every day and during the past year “missed” only four days. I spent this past weekend in the mountains of Virginia at a church retreat and disconnected myself from the internet during that time. I had a wonderful time and feel uplifted emotionally and spiritually. After all of the covid-related travel limitations of the past two years, it felt good to get away and break out of my normal routine.

Uhler's Sundragon

Uhler's Sundragon

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

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Female and male Uhler’s Sundragons

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on April 26, 2022| 10 Comments »

When the dragonfly season first starts, I am content to get a record shot of each species, which is to say that I am looking primarily to document the species and am not all that concerned about the quality of the initial images or their artistic merits. After the first excitement dies down, I try to get better and better images and one of the things that I often try to do is to photograph males and females of each species.

How do you tell the gender of a dragonfly? In some dragonfly species, the mature males and females have different colors and are easy to tell apart. However, quite often immature males have the same coloration as the females, so color alone is rarely a reliable marker. I have found that the best way to determine the gender is to look at the tips of the abdomen (the “tail”)—I won’t go into the details of dragonfly anatomy, but suffice it to say that the males and females have different shapes in this area so they can fit together for mating.

Over the last two weeks I have had several encounters with Uhler’s Sundragon dragonflies (Helocordulia uhleri) and was able to get shots of both a male and a female. The dragonfly in the first image is a female. I can tell its gender by the shape of the “terminal appendages” and also by the curved shape of the hind wings where they join the body.

If you look closely at the second image, which is a shot of a male, you can see that the lower portion of the abdomen is slightly enlarged—the abdomen is more uniformly shaped with a female—and the shape of the tip of the abdomen is different. You might also notice that the shape of the hind wings is “indented” where they meet the body, unlike the smooth curves of the female.

With some species, you can find the males and the females in the same area, so it is not hard to get shots of both genders. However, with other species, the females hang out in separate areas and do not mingle with the males until the females decide it is time for mating, which forces me to search a much wider area to photograph males and females.

I apologize if I got a little “geeky” in this posting. I am a little obsessed with dragonflies and am endlessly fascinated by them, so it is easy for me to get a little lost in the details.

female Uhler's Sundragon

male Uhler's Sundragon

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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