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Hagenius brevistylus
A Dragonhunter dragonfly spotted during an Audubon Naturalist Society field trip to the North Tract of the Patuxent Research Refuge. This individual is a male, as indicated by the secondary genitalia located on the underside of abdominal segments 2-3. Dragonhunters are "much larger than any other North American clubtail, at 3.3 inches (84 mm), with black and yellow markings and green eyes. ... The adult feeds on large insects, including darner and clubtail dragonflies, sometimes ambushing them from above. It also takes Monarch butterflies, eating the thorax and abdomen first to avoid the greatest concentration of cardenolide toxins." Source Credit: Wikipedia. Related Resources: 1) Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS) http://www.audubonnaturalist.org/ 2) ANS Adult Classes and Field Trips http://www.audubonnaturalist.org/index.p...
The Little Patuxent River, a forested stream that flows through the Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel, Maryland USA. Related Resource: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/patuxent/
Copyright © 2012 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved. www.wsanford.com
Spotted on Sep 2, 2012
Submitted on Sep 3, 2012
4 Comments
You're more likely to see Dragonhunters if you're willing to wade the Little Patuxent River for 100 yards-or-so (knee-deep water, on average). Touch base with me via e-mail and I'll send you an annotateed map showing where to "put in." The same location is the Mother Lode for American Rubyspot damselflies! Walter Sanford, a.k.a., "Geodialist" E-mail: wsanford@wsanford.com
Nice! Hopefully I can see these one day also!
One of my favorite species.
This was an awesome spotting, my favorite of the trip to Patuxent!