scottking 的日誌

And my day was already going well. Earlier in the day, I'd found a poem written some years ago and forgotten inside a book. While hiking, I'd found some interesting hover flies, some showy butterflies, several handsome Autumn Meadowhawks, and a Lance-tipped Darner.

Things got even better when I reached a sunlit, sandy spot along the river. A variety of plants grew along this open stretch of river bank and a wide margin of mud followed the river, but there were also several areas of clear sand and one of those was fully in the sun. I settled in and watched the Bronzed Tiger Beetles, at least fifty raced here and there across the sand. There were other insects here as well. A small spider wasp. Many tiny Oxybelus wasps, hunters of tiny flies. Several larger sand wasps.

Then I noticed what looked to be a small beetle digging in the sand. About half the size of the tiger beetles, or smaller. I pointed the camera at it and took a few photos. Looking at the magnified images, I saw that it was a Pygmy Mole Cricket. A second one showed up not long afterwards. I'd never encountered these fantastic creatures before.

I'd nearly given up on seeing a Variegated Meadowhawk this year. Usually, I see them in the spring when they arrive with the other regular migrant, the Common Green Darner. This year the Common Green Darners arrived on their own. Conditions were such that the Variegated Meadowhawks either didn't arrive here in the spring or they arrived in low numbers and I didn't find them.

Today, walking home after a hike to the St Olaf Natural Lands, I decided to cut through the restored prairie of Lashbrook Park. Dozens of White-faced Meadowhawks perched low along the edges of the mowed trails. Then I noticed a golden-colored meadowhawk flying above my head, glider-like, and I knew in an instant that it was a Variegated Meadowhawk. I waited for it to land, thinking this might be the one and only chance I'd get to observe this species this year. After it perched, I was able to get close enough to photograph it and see that it was a juvenile female, recently emerged.

Ten minutes later, leaving the park, I encountered a second Variegated Meadowhawk. This one was a male, but also a juvenile, yellow colored instead of red. This species grows incredibly fast, going from egg to nymph (through all dozen instars) to adult in about two months time. Therefore the eggs for the two dragonflies encountered today must have been oviposited in a nearby pond sometime around the beginning of July. The eggs of all the other species of meadowhawks in North America all overwinter as eggs, undergoing a period of diapause, a suspended development during the cold months.