China power!

So I'm still in China, still chugging away, always on the lookout for the next big dfly, the next superstar of the world.  Here are some candidates I've come across in the past few months.

Female Acisoma panorpoides (Asian pintail).

observations of my terminal influence

Thanks for stopping by.  A short story if I might relate it to you.  My half twin brother Andrew and I went out for a walk the other day to have a dfly catching battle.  This battle was to determine who would be the first to catch a dragonfly by hand.  Well, I will admit right now that I got beat, and by default Andrew won, since he was the only other person playing.  I'm not really ashamed.

ecstatic beginnings

The time has come here in Northeast Tarrant County!!  As mentioned in my previous two postings (which in extreme excitement I sent from my phone), specific Zygopterans and Epithecans have taken to the air at the Colleyville Nature Center.

I began my walk this morning with hopes of seeing some dragonflies but I made sure not to get too excited, as my fragile personality easily becomes fragmented.  Walking by sections of the park I recalled years past and dragonflies the dragonflies of yore...could today be the day??  ...No, Brian, calm down, be patient.  I say this to myself a lot.  So I kept sauntering along, enjoying the sights of many other insects that I haven't seen in a while.  I saw a six-spotted tiger beetle (species Cincindela sexguttata) along my way to the pond's edge, as well as some butterflies or moths (who cares...order Lepidoptera) and midges (suborder Nemotocera).  The midges got me excited--midges are aquatic insects just like dragonflies.  In fact, midges often fall prey to the mandibles of our beloved dragonflies.  If only...

I think you can tell where this is headed.  If not, you're retarded, because I already told you in the first paragraph.

what's Latin for tragedy...

Just kidding, I don't care.  Natural selection takes care of a lot of our dragonfly friends, as seen in the following photographs.  Sometimes I wish I would've been disposed of earlier by nature, however, I was born in the 20th century with a lion roaring in the background.  Anyway, someone's loss is our benefit, and these pictures will help us bridge the gap between the very brief period in which a dragonfly lives underwater and in which it takes to the air.

Uh oh...complications emerging!!

new season ahead

Here is a photo from last year, a reminder of what is coming in 2011.  Species of the genus Epitheca are usually the first dragonflies to start showing up around here.  They generally begin emerging in mid-March and persist maybe through August.

This fine specimen, an unidentified baskettail (Epitheca sp.), was placed in a vial of acetone moments after capture.  Usually when we immediately immerse a specimen in the field it is so the specimen won't damage itself, or to preserve its ephemeral developmental state.