Keeping it simple this week with very little text:
Bluet damselfly on Water Lily, Enallagma sp. Flagstaff, Coconino County, AZ
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Well-Nigh Wordless Wednesday: Damselfly on Water Lily
The Dragonfly Woman 
What’s this “Enallagma sp.” business? You can’t get away with THAT!!!
This is a telephoto shot, so I didn’t get anywhere near close enough to it to be able to ID it at the time and I haven’t had a chance to ID it since. I don’t know my adult damselflies very well at all, so I actually have to spend some time with my books to ID them and time has been in short supply recently. Feel free to ID my bluet for me though! :)
I always love to see your closeup photos of LIVING insects. I`ve been challenging myself to try to capture some myself, but am hampered by my perfectionism & the unco-operative nature of my camera`s autofocus. (I also don`t have a true telefocus lens.) Fortunately, digital shots don`t cost a thing to take so I`m learning to grab a quick one when I can & try to improve upon it if the subject permits. Not sure how to get around the technical glitch. (Makes dragonflies & lacewings an especially difficult project!)
I hope you`re enjoying your relocation. It sounds like a wonderful way to increase the number of folks who realize what a wonder these little critters are.
(BTW, “Bela” is doing great & has moved into a lovely mansion, a tank of 30-35gallons that someone was discarding! Still hoping to play matchmaker & find a Mr. Lethocerus Medius for her.)
Glad to see hear that Bela has moved out of her starter home and upgraded her digs! And your technique of grabbing quick shots while you can is a good one. I’ve recently started doing that when the risk of the insect flying away is high. I start out taking shots from a distance, then move in closer and closer. It’s working well for me so far! Not all the shots are perfectly composed, but at least I have a clear shot.
Yikes! I`m sorry but somehow I missed your reply a month ago. I`m looking for a Mr. Lethocerus Americanus then! LOL! Reading your posts about their reproductive behaviours & the development of the eggs have me really excited. I`ve included a bulrush & another plant that grows out of the water & Bela has already demonstrated that she can climb to the very top of it!
Such a beautiful photo! I love the colors, both in the flower and the dragonfly. So bright and different, they look like ‘Avatar’ (the movie) characters.
So glad you like it!
Beautiful!
Thank you so much!
Nice shot! The limited amount of black on the middle abdominal segments and apparently short cerci point to either Northern Bluet (Enallagma annexum) or Boreal Bluet (Enallagma boreale). Both species are in that region and it takes just the right angle on the cerci (lateral) to tell them apart in photos.
Hmmm… Neither were listed on OdonataCentral as being in the county where I took the photo, but I’ll take your word for it! My Dragonflies of the West is packed in a box somewhere, so I have been relying on OC instead. Can’t wait to finish unpacking my books!
“…data on distributions are quite often records of where collections have been made and not where insects occur,” (Cummins, 1978)
Now that you’ve relocated, you need to break down and get Dennis’s new Dragonflies and Damselflies of the EAST!
I already own it! But it’s in a box and I haven’t found it yet. At the moment I’m reliant entirely on internet sources for IDs. It’s frustrating!
If you don’t already have it, I’d highly recommend Ed Lam’s Damselflies of the Northeast for those tricky “little blue things”.
GREAT illustrations and descriptions, and very user-friendly.
It’s on my list of about 50 new field guides I need to buy. Might be some time before I can get them all, but I’m working on it! First, I need to concentrate on buying a house and my husband’s getting a job so I can AFFORD all these new books I must have. :)
I wasn’t referring to the county. I meant that both species are known to be in that region generally (in northern Arizona, at least). Whatever it is very well could be new for the county.
If annexum and boreale are both in northern AZ, then they should be in Coconino county as there are only 15 counties in AZ and that one takes up a huge part of the northern part of the state. I found my Paulson book for the west and confirmed that they are indeed in that county, so apparently no one’s reported them for that county to Odonata Central. I never doubted you for a second though! You haven’t steered me wrong yet.
I knew that if I waited long enough, somebody would get me off the hotseat. Thanks, Jim.
I have been unsuccessful in catching the color in a photo of these, which gives me an appreciation for your photo, well done.
Why thank you! Though it did seem to be on the perfect background to actually make the colors pop a bit. I happened to be at the right place at the right time.
Here’s a post — by a fellow poet — that may interest you!
http://thegloriasirens.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/damselfly/