June 22rd, 2012. I was photographing a small wildflower by a road in the
Scull Shoals Experimental Forest when I noticed some movement among the leaves
a few inches above the ground. This usually means some small insect whose
identification I have no chance of making. But this time, there were a couple
of small damselflies not more than an inch in length flying stealthily from
leaf to leaf. They’d settle on leaves unless disturbed so we had several
opportunities to photograph them.
For
once, it was relatively easy to identify them. The ‘exclamation mark’ pattern
on the thorax is diagnostic for the Fragile Forktail (IIschnura posita). One had blue markings and the other had cream
markings.
A view to give a relative size of
the damselfly.
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Closer views of the ‘blue’ male
resting on a leaf.
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Closer views of the ‘cream’ male
resting on a leaf.
This
damselfly is munching on a smaller insect it caught.
Click
on an image to view a larger image
Identification
resources:
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