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Dragonflies A Closer Look

The blue-faced meadowhawk dragonfly (above) is one of at least three meadowhawk species found at the wetland that specialize in making use of ephemeral wetlands -- wetlands that are dry for at least part of the year. Rather than laying their eggs directly in water as most other dragonflies do, these species frequently drop their eggs on dry ground in late summer or fall where there should be water for their young to develop after the fall rains and winter snows.

This is a pair of common green darners. The female, in the back, is laying eggs in plant stems underwater. Thus the cycle begins. Other dragonfly species have other means of depositing their eggs in the water, but for all dragonflies, life begins in the water and the majority of their lives is lived underwater. Common green darners are normally the first dragonflies to appear in the spring-- I've seen them as early as March 22nd! This is because they are migratory and arrive from the south long before the weather is warm enough for any of the local dragonflies to have emerged from the water.
This is an immature Carolina saddlebags. The aquatic dragonfly nymphs are called "naiads." They hatch from eggs and live and grow in the water for months, or depending on the species, even years. At an ephemeral wetland, if they do not reach maturity before it goes dry they must either have a way to survive the dry period or perish.
This is a common green darner naiad. (Adult common green darners are pictured above laying eggs at the wetland.) Naiads are uniquely adapted for their lives in the water. They breathe oxygen through gills inside their rectums and are highly specialized in the way they catch their prey (click the button below to see a common green darner naiad in action -- keep watching to see an instant replay in 1/4 speed).
watch a dragonfly naiad capture and eat a mosquito larva
When a naiad is fully grown and conditions are right, it will emerge from the water, find a secure place to cling and out will come the dragonfly. This is a twelve-.spotted skimmer in an early stage of emergence. At this point it is hanging head downward waiting for its legs to harden so it can pull the rest of its body out of the old shell and pump fluids into its wings and fully expand its new body. The old shell, called an exuviae, will be left behind. Many people are familiar with cicada shells left behind when they emerge from the ground in the summer and fly away. Dragonflies undergo the same process, except that they emerge from the water and typically leave their exuviae clinging to plants or other structures near the water's edge.
This is a newly emerged blue dasher, a little further along in the process than the twelve-spotted skimmer above. The newly emerged dragonfly (referred to as a "teneral") is now upright and has pumped fluids into its wings to expand them and has begun to pump fluids into the long portion of its body (the abdomen) in order for it to reach its full size before its new exoskeleton hardens.
This is a newly emerged Carolina saddlebags. It has now progressed to the stage where its abdomen is fully expanded and has its coloration and its wings have hardened enough for it to spread them for the first time. It is however still clinging to its exuviae and has not yet taken its first flight.
A common green darner exuviae left hanging on an arrowhead leaf at the wetland on an early June morning. The dragonfly has emerged and begun its life in the air, leaving the exuviae behind.
Teneral dragonflies take some time to reach their full flight capacity. At this stage they are especially vulnerable to predation. This is a teneral eastern pondhawk. It has taken its first flight but its wings are still shiny and soft. It will move away from the water as it continues to harden and gain strength. It will return when it is ready to reproduce. The eastern pondhawk is a member of the skimmer family of dragonflies. These are the colorful dragonflies most often seen at ponds and lakes. Males and females look the same when they emerge, but as they mature, males take on a completely different coloration. In the case of eastern pondhawks, males start out bright green as in the photo, but when they reach maturity they are light blue in color.
This is a male eastern pondhawk transitioning from its original bright green to its mature light blue color. Eventually it will be uniformly light blue and there will be no green showing.
A twelve-spotted skimmer flies over the Homer Lake Wetland. So far a total of 31 different species of dragonfly have been documented at the Homer Lake Wetland over the past six years and among them four new county records -- dragonfly species documented at the wetland for the first time ever in Champaign County.

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Text, Photos and Videos by Doug Mills