Saturday, July 30, 2011

MONARCHS & DRAGONFLIES GALORE!!

I saw so many of my little friends today. But the best was this monarch at the pool. First of the season.......♥ I DO hope to see more of you Danaus plexippus!

At The Pool:

1 Monarch (Danaus plexippus)
1 Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)
1 Agapostemon splendens? *male rescued from drowning.......no wonder I didn't get stung!
1 Yellow Jacket or European Paper Wasp
1 Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis)

At The Park:

More Cabbage Whites (Pieris rapae)
3 Cicada Killers (Sphecius speciosus)
1 Spider
1 Leafhopper
European Paper Wasps
Bees (Melissoides bimaculata was one of them) *might be mixing up the dates I saw the second M. bimaculata.......Idk. X_X
1 Spring Azure (Celastrina argiolus)? *See post "Celastrina Mystery" cause this whole thing is a mystery to me. >_<
1 Lacewing
2 Mud Daubers (Chalybion sp.)
DRAGONFLIES!

Observations of Dragonflies:

I more or less walked into a swarm of them in the field and it was one of the most beautiful insecty things I've seen at the park this year. To see the sun glinting off their wings in rainbows........*happy happy sigh*

Upon further research after I got back I found I walked into a feeding swarm. Being that there were numerous species far far away from the water and they obviously weren't courting each other it had to be some other reason they were swarming like that. It was a "mini swarm" about maybe 20-30 flying around.

I was able to ID 2 of them in that swarm as being:

Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerata)
12 Spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella)

And finally my mystery orange dragonfly as Perithemis tenera Eastern Amberwing. Did I mention how much I love insects? :P

The "observations of Sphecius speciosus" will be a separate entry as I want to look into them more and possibly answer questions before I speculate/analyze.

I'm going to say this again. I. LOVE. INSECTS.

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