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Arigomphus corutus
This dragonfly has blue eyes and black legs and shoulder stripes. The black club at the end of the abdomen is not very broad and has rusty-colored lower edges. A yellow occiptal crest is present that bridges between the eyes.
Lives near slow-moving streams and ponds. This particular individual was photographed along a sun-dappled trail not far from a river.
I saw a six-spotted tiger beetle flying up the trail towards me (although I had not yet identified it) when this clubtail intercepted it with an audible click right in front of me. It's momentum carried it to a fern alongside the trail where it proceeded to munch on the tiger beetle. I'm not sure if the dragonfly deliberately bit off the tiger beetle's head first (these beetles are pretty ferocious predators themselves) or if that was just an accident. Interesting experience!
Spotted on Jun 9, 2006
Submitted on May 31, 2011
3 Comments
I once watched common green darner dragonflies preying on large baskettail dragonflies being flushed as I walked through the grass--dragonflies are really fierce predators--and those struggles between these two dragonflies were violent affairs. Our dragonhunter dragonflies have even been rumored to even prey on hummingbirds. I've never seen that happen, but wouldn't be too surprised. They are big and fast and take on other very large prey. The first thing the clubtail in the photo above did, was to decapitate the tiger beetle. Not sure if that was deliberate or if that was just the way the beetle was positioned, but it may have offered some protection from the beetle's jaws.
Tiger beetle hunted down by a dragonfly.
That is interesting, I never knew that dragonflies are capable of capturing those fierce tiger beetles.
What luck!. Impressive spotting.