docshark wrote:
On this trip to Texas I had a chance to photograph on of my favorite skimmer. The most commonly seen dragonflies are the perchers or skimmers of the family
Libellulidae. It is the largest family of dragonflies in the world with over 1000 species.
One of the most eye-catching and beautiful species being the Twelve-spotted Skimmer
(Libellula pulchella). Males have 12 brown spots with white spots between. They used to be called Ten-spotted Skimmers but I believe that was because the counted the spot at the base of the wing as extending on to the adjacent wing. Thusly, five brown spots on the two fore wings and five on the hind wings. Females have only the brown spots. A males abdomen will take on a white or even blue pruinosity as they age. They are very quick flyers and males will defend their territory which can change from day to day. Mating takes place in flight and the female will deposit eggs by dipping her abdomen in the water or splashing eggs on to a muddy bank while guarded by the male. While surveying on this trip in two different places a fair amount of them were observed.
They can be seen in all three countries of North America.
I hope you find them as beautiful as I do. Enjoy!
>i< Doc
The next two are females.
Twelve Spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) F by
Tony Schoch, on Flickr
Twelve Spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) F by
Tony Schoch, on Flickr
The rest are males.
Twelve -spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) M by
Tony Schoch, on Flickr
Twelve -spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) M by
Tony Schoch, on Flickr
On this trip to Texas I had a chance to photograph... (
show quote)
thank you for these wonderful shots of your favorite skimmer, doc. the twelve spotted skimmer is beautiful!
i also enjoyed the informative narrative...excellent job on the set.
docshark wrote:
On this trip to Texas I had a chance to photograph on of my favorite skimmer. The most commonly seen dragonflies are the perchers or skimmers of the family
Libellulidae. It is the largest family of dragonflies in the world with over 1000 species.
One of the most eye-catching and beautiful species being the Twelve-spotted Skimmer
(Libellula pulchella). Males have 12 brown spots with white spots between. They used to be called Ten-spotted Skimmers but I believe that was because the counted the spot at the base of the wing as extending on to the adjacent wing. Thusly, five brown spots on the two fore wings and five on the hind wings. Females have only the brown spots. A males abdomen will take on a white or even blue pruinosity as they age. They are very quick flyers and males will defend their territory which can change from day to day. Mating takes place in flight and the female will deposit eggs by dipping her abdomen in the water or splashing eggs on to a muddy bank while guarded by the male. While surveying on this trip in two different places a fair amount of them were observed.
They can be seen in all three countries of North America.
I hope you find them as beautiful as I do. Enjoy!
>i< Doc
The next two are females.
Twelve Spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) F by
Tony Schoch, on Flickr
Twelve Spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) F by
Tony Schoch, on Flickr
The rest are males.
Twelve -spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) M by
Tony Schoch, on Flickr
Twelve -spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) M by
Tony Schoch, on Flickr
On this trip to Texas I had a chance to photograph... (
show quote)
Always excellent images from you Doc
Nice shots of the little critters, Doc.
Doc, yet another outstanding post of fascinating dragons and educational narrative. You have inspired me to take my Sigma "Big Ma" 50-500 zoom to our local park this coming spring where the lake attracts them and hopefully, you will help identify what I find.
OhD
Loc: West Richland, WA
Nice photos Tony. We have very similar twelve spots here in the inland NW. I'll post a couple in a separate thread. Glad you had a good trip!
OhD
Loc: West Richland, WA
Nice work Tony - glad you had a good trip! We have very similar twelve-spots here in the inland NW. I'll post a couple in a separate thread.
Wow Doc you have done it again. I think I would have remembered seeing a pink dragon so that's a first for me
Sylvias
Loc: North Yorkshire England
Thank you for all you do, Doc! I really enjoyed that.
There are more beautiful skimmers, of course (that being a subjective thing too). I would vote for the rare purple skimmer from Florida that you showed a while back (I can't quite recall the actual name). Then there is the more common filagree skimmer found out west. Both are still on my bucket list.
merrytexan wrote:
thank you for these wonderful shots of your favorite skimmer, doc. the twelve spotted skimmer is beautiful!
i also enjoyed the informative narrative...excellent job on the set.
So glad that you enjoyed the narrative as well as the pics of my little friends Merry. I've always enjoyed finding a few of these but believe it or not this is the first time in 14 years that I had the chance to photograph a female!
>i< Doc
Manglesphoto wrote:
Very nice set !!! Doc
So glad you think so Frank. I was hoping for more species in these surveys but it was a wonderful time in the field.
>i< Doc
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