Birds & Bugs of Arizona - October 2003

42 species - see list

Dragonflies

Anxious to see and photograph some southwestern dragonflies, I managed to do pretty well considering the time of year.  I had good company while looking for odes.  On Thursday, October 23, I picked up Rich Hoyer in Tucson and old Iowa friend Bud Gode in Green Valley and we headed for adventure along Ruby Road and in Sycamore Canyon.  This is a place I want to do again sometime as I'm sure we missed a few species.  

I saw Pale-faced Clubskimmers in several places which was kind of surprising to me.  Up north in Oak Creek Canyon we found a total of only four species but three of those were lifers.  A couple of unsuccessful attempts to net an Apache Spiketail (Cordulegaster diadema) was disappointing because this is a magnificent critter, but I did manage to get a few good photos of some other species throughout the week.

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Persephone's Darner - Oak Creek Canyon	Persephone's Darner - Sycamore Canyon	Spot-winged Meadowhawk male	Spot-winged Meadowhawk female
This was perhaps my most-wanted critter on this trip and I wasn't disappointed.  Expecting obvious wide thoracic stripes on this guy, when I caught the first one in Oak Creek Canyon I fully expected to find it was something else but the claspers were a perfect match for Persephone's Darner.  After finding another in Sycamore Canyon, I did a bit more research and found that there is an obvious difference from north to south.		After summarily dismissing all sympetrums as Variegated, this bug was a nice surprise in Sycamore Canyon.  These aren't the greatest shots but the basal wing spots are evident.
Pale-faced Clubskimmer	Plateau Dragonlet	Flame Skimmer	Neon Skimmer
White-belted Ringtail male	White-belted Ringtail female	Mexican Amberwing male	Mexican Amberwing female
Roseate Skimmer male	Roseate Skimmer female	Filigree Skimmer	Gray Sanddragon

Damselflies

I certainly saw more damselflies than these pathetic shots would indicate but here are a few.  Great Spreadwings (Archilestes grandis) were nearly everywhere as were Arroyo Bluets (Enallagma praevarum).  Painted Damsel (Hesperagrion heterodoxum) still has to be one of the most outrageous bugs I've seen.  Several forktails were new, but the highlight may have been one we just couldn't identify while on Ruby Road near Sycamore Canyon.  Friend Bud took the specimen home and finally identified it as a Black-and-white Damsel (Apanisagrion lais), a tropical species not well know from the US.

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Arroyo Bluet	Arroyo Bluet pair	Painted Damsel	Amethyst Dancer
Canyon Rubyspot male	Canyon Rubyspot female	Dusky Dancer	Aztec Dancer
	Great Spreadwing male	Great Spreadwing female