Catching Dragonflies with Butterfly Nets

Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyrith 2011. Do not copy.

This is just a quick post to link an article I wrote on another platofrm about How to Catch and Hold a Dragonfly because it's relevant to some of the the things we've been talking about here. I took this picture today just to show you that what I wrote really works. This dragonfly, after being photographed, was released unharmed. In fact, I set it down on an apple tree branch and it stayed there for a couple minutes (where I took some more photos) before flying away.

You can get expensive butterfly nets, but there are many inexpensive nets meant for kids that work just fine. They won't last for years and years, but they are perfectly fine for light use and they cost very little. Most of these can also be used for skimming in ponds as well. The finer the mesh the better for that.

Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) - When a Subject Won't Sit Still for a Photo



Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) in flight
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

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In the course of trying to identify every creature that lives in my yard, there are many that I can simply pick up, or follow around until they sit still long enough for me to take photos and make my observations. Then again, there are some that simply won’t cooperate. That’s when technology comes into play.

I have an older model digital camera, that has some automatic settings for different occasions. One of them is the sports or action setting which uses a faster shutter speed to try to eliminate the blurring that can be caused when trying to photograph a subject in motion. Because of the short exposure though, it requires a brightly lit situation.

The other problem is that I can’t lock the focus on an object that is rapidly changing its distance from the camera. To get around this problem, I watch the subject’s path for a while and choose a spot where I expect it to pass again. Then I lock the focus at that distance by holding down the button that I press to take a picture halfway and waiting for a green signal. Once I have that, I continue to hold the button in that position and point the camera at the spot I’ve chosen. Then I wait. Sometimes, the subject doesn’t follow my plans and I get nothing.

Sometimes, however, it does fly or run within the selected field of view and I am able to snap a picture. As a rule, these pictures (with my point and shoot, autofocus camera) don’t come out as well as pictures with posed subjects that are sitting still, but sometimes they are good enough for an identification photo. Such was the case with the Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella).  

·         How to Catch and Hold a Dragonfly Safely (for both of you)—Remember, despite the widespread myth to the contrary, dragonflies don’t bite or sting and are completely harmless to people!

There are few dragonflies for which this photo would be good enough for identification, but the twelve-spotted skimmer is one. The Twelve-spotted skimmer has, of course, twelve black (or dark brown)spots on its wings, three on each of its four wings. These are separated by two white spots on each wing in the adult males. These white spots will be absent in females or immature males says bugguide.net. Unlike beetles, of course, dragonflies and damselflies actively use both the hind wings and the fore wings for flying.

Twelve-spotted dragonflies belong to the Skimmer family (Libellulidae), the same family to which two other dragonflies that we have found in my yard belong: the Cherry-faced (or Ruby) Meadowhawk and the Crimson-ringed Whiteface. Even though they are related to these other families, I like to learn something new with every species that I find. So let’s take a closer look at the Skimmer Family.

What Makes Skimmers Different from other Dragonfly Families?

So what separates the skimmers from the other families of dragonflies? Our Audubon Field Guide tells us that Skimmers have bodies (.75”-2.5”long) that are shorter than their wingspans (1”-4”). The wings often have spots or bands and the bodies tend to be brightly colored. The nymphs, or naiads as they are also called, tend to live in warmer, shallower waters than those of other dragonfly families and mature faster. As we have seen with the Meadowhawks, the females may be a different color than mature males and may be mistaken for different species by the average person.

All of the dragonflies and damselflies that I have thus far found in my yard, breed in water. They need ponds or slow moving rivers in which to lay their eggs and grow as nymphs. There really isn’t such a body of water on my property. The nearest is probably a half mile away as the dragonfly flies. I just point this out to show that these insects can cover quite a lot of territory as they seek feeding grounds.

Range: Twelve-spotted skimmers live all across the lower 48 states and into Canada.

When are they here? Twelve spotted skimmers may be found flying from May to September in New Hampshire, but the nymphs overwinter here so they are present as a species all year round.

Their diet and behaviors are otherwise similar to those of the crimson-ringed White-face so I won’t repeat them again.  

Cherry-faced or Ruby Meadowhawk (Sympetrum internum or S. rubicundum)

Cherry-faced or Ruby Meadowhawk, two species that are
difficult to identify
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

One of the most accurate ways to determine species is to look directly at the DNA which is after all, the stuff that makes a species different than any other. This is not a tool that was available when most species that we know today were classified, however. Instead, entomologists carefully detailed the most minute morphological variations (differences in shape or appearance) between the specimens they examined and separated them into groups or species based on these differences. Within a genus, these differences may be very small indeed. For some, in fact, it can be quite difficult even for true experts to distinguish between them.

When you think about people, there are characteristics that are specific to region of origin that can with some reliability distinguish someone of Native American heritage from someone of Chinese ancestry, yet we are one species. The point that I am trying to make here is that some of the animal species descriptions identified may have morphological differences that are smaller than typical human variations. It’s reasonable that some mistakes were made in establishing species. Even before the advent of DNA testing and sequencing, it was not entirely unusual for scientists to make changes to previously described species based on new evidence or even a very close re-examination of old evidence.

In trying to pin down a dragonfly species that I found in my yard, I happened upon a case where this may be about to happen again.

The insect pictured above is a dragonfly. You recall how we determine whether it is a dragonfly or a damselfly, of course, if you follow this blog regularly. If not, here’s the post with a refresher course. More specifically, this insect falls within the taxonomical Family called Skimmers (Libellulidae) and we can even get to the Genus called Meadowhawks (Sympetrum). From there it gets tricky.

Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

There are several Meadowhawks whose general coloration matches my photos. To get a firm ID between four possible Sympetrum matches, I’d need to look very carefully at the shape of the reproductive organs located at the tip of the tail and a feature called the hamules, located on the underside of the abdomen at its thickest part right near where it joins the thorax (circled in the photo). Even then, the ID might be less than certain, says bugguide.net

• Slideshow of more Photos of this particular Meadowhawk including alternate views of the hamules and caudla appendages

 The specific shapes of these features, along with the color of the face can help separate  the four similar species: Sympetrum obstrusum (White-faced Meadowhawk), Sympetrum rubicundum (Ruby Meadowhawk), Sympetrum internum (Cherry-faced Meadowhawk), and Sympetrum Janeae (Jane’s Meadowhawk) which was split out as a separate species from the Cherry-faced Meadowhawk in 1993.

Caudal appendages (male), used for mating
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

It’s a near thing and the New Hampshire Dragonfly Survey protocol calls for a specimen to be delivered to the survey coordinator in order to confirm the specific species. In this case, I’ve got decent photos of both the tip of the tail and of the hamules, both from several angles. This was fairly difficult camera work, by the way, and involved me chasing this Meadowhawk from place to place to get the shots. Meanwhile, one thing we do know for sure is that it is a mature male. Females and immature males are decidedly more orange in color, as you can see in the photo below (labeled as immature male or female) which I also happened to find in my yard on the same day.

The immature male and the adult female of these species are
quite orange compare to the adult male.
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

Bugguide.net says it requires a microscopic examination of these features to differentiate these Meadowhawk species precisely. Therefore, I can’t pin it down beyond saying I believe it is either the Cherry-faced Meadowhawk or the Ruby Meadowhawk. Getting back to the beginning of this post, there is some doubt about these species being separate, especially the Ruby Meadowhawk and Cherry-faced Meadowhawk according to this abstract of a study by E. Pilgrim and C. Von Dohlen published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America which states that “genetic distances between individuals of S. internum and S. rubicundulum were small or nonexistent.” Which leads one to wonder whether these might be prime candidates for an upcoming species consolidation – which, of course, would render my indecision moot. At present, I simply don't have the equipment to distinguish between these species.

Banded Net-wing (Colopteron reticulatum) -

Banded Net-wing (Calopteron reticulatum)
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

These bugs have been flying around the open areas of my yard all summer. There are many, many of them. I see them sitting on leaves, outdoor table tops, and all over my gardens. I also see them flying around all day long. As they fly past, I see a set of non-functioning wing covers that are just being held out of the way while the hind wings do all the work. If you’ve been following this blog you know that fore-wings specialized into protective wing-covers for the membranous hind-wings means that this insect is almost certainly a beetle of the order Coleoptera.

Already, in just a few weeks, I’m recognizing things that make the identification of new insects much easier, and that is one of the main goals of this whole project. I not only want to know what lives in my yard, but I want to see an insect or any other animal and be able to narrow it down to taxonomic order and family even if it is a creature that I have never seen before. I want to know the key areas to look at in order to help get a positive ID. While wing-covers are pretty elementary, knowing to count the number of segments in the antennae and to look closely at the shape of the pronotum, on the other hand, are not things I would have known to do before I started this project.

Once we have this particular specimen down to the order of Beetles, it’s very distinctive coloration and patterning make it easy to pick it out of the Audubon Field Guide as a net-wing. Although the Audubon book shows a Banded Net-wing (Calopteron reticulatum) as the only close match, I use a secondary source to confirm, partly because the book represents only a subset of each genus. Sure enough, bugguide.net lists Calopteron discrepans (the Net-wing Beetle) as a close visual match. A slight detail of the patterning near the scutellum is the only readily visible difference -- a plate on the top (dorsal surface) of the thorax, often a small triangle right where the wings or wing cover— which, by the way, are called elytra— in beetles.

Banded Net-wing searching for nectar
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

This one is indeed a Banded Net-wing. Which brings me to another point. I generally think of beetles as eating either the leaves of my plants, eating other bugs that eat the leaves of my plants, or eating dead things like leaf litter or carrion. In fact, the Audubon Field Guide says that the Banded Net-wing does just that, eating the juices of decaying plant matter while the larva lives under tree bark and eats mites and other small insects that it finds there.  I watched this one work this flower delicately for nearly a minute before it flew off. There are certainly no decaying plant juices, and no visible mites or other insects here. So what was it doing? Bugguide.net, an entomology site hosted by the Iowa State University Entomology Department, says that the Banded Net-wing, in fact, is a drinker of nectar and other plant juices.

Which brings up an interesting question. Perhaps they are both right and the diet of this insect is more varied than either one believes, but how much to we really know about the secret lives of very little things. A hungry bug in captivity may eat different things than it would in it's natural habitat, so unless they were followed and observed in the wild (or an artificial habitat that very closely simulates the natural environment), accurate data may be difficult to obtain.  I'll check some other sources about the diet of the Banded Net-wing to see if there is some more general agreement about it's diet when I have the chance.

Quick facts about the Banded Net-wing:
Range: Eastern and central United States
When is it here: Year round
Lifespan: no information found, likely one year
Diet: plant juices? as adults. small insects as larva
Life cycle: Adults lay eggs under the bark of dead tree. larva live under the bark and overwinter there. In the spring they pupate still under the tree bark and metamorphose into adults who live in moist woodlands and adjacent meadows.

Mystery solved (Janetiella brevicauda) Grape Tumid Gallmaker

Kim Phillips a member of an entomology group to which I belong on Facebook suggested Grape Tomato Gall minutes after I posted the story of a mystery bug this morning. It seemed a good possibility, but I couldn't confirm it, because internet sources seem conflicted about just what Grape Tomato Gall actually is. Bugguide.net could provide no help at all. The source I orginially checked, Ohio State University, for example, believes it is caused by several species of midges saying that the most common is Lasioptera vitis or a species of the genus Cecidomyia. 

While these seemed close in some respects in others they differed. I went away from it for a while, and then thought some more. Cornell University attributes Grape Tomato Gall to a different species, and remarks that although it used to be thought to be caused as many as five different species, it is now recognized as only Janetiella brevicauda that causes this particular gall and it infects only grapes. Cornell correctly identifies the larva as limbless and orange, as opposed to Ohio State's "pinkish in color."

Scars caused by the entry of Grape Tumid
Gallmaker Larvae (Janetiella brevicauda)
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

Cornell also mentions that the galls will have a very tiny white scar where the insect burrowed into the shoot or tendril. As it happens, I did notice such scars and even photographed them, though I did not include them with the original post. We've got a match! The mystery creature is certainly Janetiella brevicauda, although a very young one as they can grow from microscopic eggs to 3mm in length while in the gall they create.

Furthermore, Grape Tomato Gall is now more commonly called Grape Tumid Gall so people understand clearly that it affects the grape as a host and not the tomato. Tumid means swollen. The insect is referred to as the Grape Tumid Gallmaker.

Quick facts about Grape Tumid Gallmaker (Janetiella brevicauda):
Range: Northeast United States and Eastern Canada
When is it here: All year round. (see Life Cycle).
Lifespan: From a few months to a little less than one year, depending upon the hatch date of the eggs.
Life Cycle: Adults lay about 200 orange eggs in a mass near young grape shoots. The eggs hatch throughout the summer and the larvae burrow into grape shoots, tendrils or leaves. The gall swells around them and they proceed through several instars before exiting the gall and dropping to the ground to pupate in the soil. If it is still early summer, they'll pupate right away and metamorphosize into adult midges which lay a news set of eggs and die. The adults live only a few days.If it is later in the summer, the larvae will overwinter in the ground and pupate in the spring (early June).
Notes: The Grape Tomato Gallmaker is generally not present in sufficient numbers to cause significant harm to vineyards or individual grape vines. Cornell suggests that if they do become a problem, all that need be done is mound up the soil around the grape before they pupate in the spring and they'll be unable to burrow out; problem solved.

Mystery Creature Found Inside a Grape Tendril

Parasitized Concord grape tendrils
Photo by Brad yslvester, copyright 2011, all rights reserved

I have found my first mystery creature living in my yard. For lack of a better term, I’ll call it the grape tendril grub. I have Concord grapes in my yard and I noticed that two of the grape tendrils, located immediately adjacent to one another, had become bulbous at the tip. This is not typical of a grape tendril which is normally tendril-like in every respect, long, narrow, twisting and smooth. These two had tumor-like growths.



Normal Concord grape tendril
Photo by Brad Sylvester
copyright 2011, Do not copy.



Sectioned tendril showing the cavities and one grub
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

My first thought is that it is either a fungal infection or an insect. Many insects will deposit their eggs inside the soft tissue of plant so that when the eggs hatch, the larva has a ready food supply and has some protection.

Small orange grub-like creature that was hidden inside
 the swollen grape tendril
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

I examined the plant in the area of the misshapen tendrils and did not see any insect damage other than the expected Japanese beetle skeletonization of the larger leaves. Generally, though if a bug takes the time to lay eggs in or on a particular species of plant, that’s a bad sign for the plant as it almost always indicates that the larva will eat it. I’ll also note that this grape plant earlier had some spider mites which I removed with an application of soapy water.

I removed the two tendrils and cut the largest one open down the center with a very sharp knife. The largest of the two growths was an oval approximately 4mm X 8mm. Slicing lengthwise down the middle as you can see in the photo, uncovered two hollow pocket and resulted in a smear of orange paste on the knife blade. Oops. One of the pockets still had a bit of the orange color showing, but I apparently caught whatever was in the other pocket quite squarely with the blade, pulping it. I cut the other one open more carefully working in from the side so as not to repeat the mistake and discovered a very tiny orange grub-like shape inside the hollow of the smaller growth which was a sphere of approximately 3mm in diameter.

I rummaged around the house for a microscope some slides and some tools to help me handle and view the thing which was less than a millimeter in length and perhaps a third of a millimeter in width. Once I got it on the slide under a 50-75 power microscope lens, Its shape became clearer. It was definitely grub-like and was waving one end around in the air. As best I could count, it had thirteen ring-like segments. No other detail was readily visible, except that it was thickest toward the middle and tapered a little at either end.

The grub was colored orange as I’ve already mentioned, but to be more specific it was a bright yellow-orange like the skin of a pumpkin.

I can’t find this creature in any reference source. If I were to guess I’d say it’s reminiscent of a lady beetle larva, though very small like one of the Stethorus genus. It is possible that it’s in the pupal stage and not a larva at all. If so its appearance and size more closely aligns with Stethorus, but Stethorus would typically lay eggs on the underside of a leaf… Stethorus spp. would feed on spider mites, though.

What’s interesting about this insect is that it seems to change the plant behavior as well. The tendrils grow bulbous and thick with the plant’s own tissue, not just as a result of displacement caused by the insect’s growth. So either the grape plant is reacting in a defensive manner and has some kind of immune response to the presence of the insect inside it, or the grub is releasing some chemical that alters the plants growth. In either case, the result is a thicker, more secure case around the otherwise defenseless insect inside.

In any case, this one has to be filed under Mystery Creatures for now. I know it’s in the Class of Insects, and I suspect it’s in the Order Coleoptera (beetles), but even the Order is uncertain and I can’t get any further on this one at this point. Ideally, I’d find some more and let them proceed until they emerge from the grape tendril and see if they metamorphose into something recognizable.

NOTE: Kim Phillips, from one of my entomology groups on Facebook, suggests the Grape tomato gall (Lasioptera vitis). That seems like a definite possibility or perhaps (Schizomyia impatientis)?
NOTE 2: Got it, read the answer here!

Blooming Bulb has Concord Grapes if you'd like to add some to your yard.

Things that go Jump in the Night: American Toad (Bufo Americanus or Anaxyrus americanus)

American Toad, Bufo americanus
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011, all rights reserved

Fortunately, not everything that lives in my yard is hard to identify. This creature, for example, is an American toad (Bufo americanus). I don't need to spend time looking up any identification options, or tracing the taxonomy tree for this fellow.

There are only two types of toads in New Hampshire: the American Toad and Fowler's Toad (Bufo fowleri). From this view, they are fairly easy to tell apart. The largest black spots on the back of the Fowler's Toad would contain 3 warts each. The American Toad as you can see easily in this photo, has one or at most two warts contained in each of the large black spots on its back.

The American toad also has noticeably larger warts on its tibia (between the knee and the ankle) than on the rest of its leg, another trait clearly visible here. If you were to look on the underside, you'd find dark spots on the belly of the American Toad which would be absent on a Fowler's Toad.

The only complicating factor is that occasionally the American Toad and the Fowler's Toad will mate with each other resulting in a hybrid of intermediate features. That is definitely not the case here. The Fowler's toad tends to live along the major rivers of New Hampshire (The Connecticut River and the Merrimack River), so it would be unusual to find one in my yard, anyway.

American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus or Bufo americanus)
Notice the dark spots on the  underbelly.
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011, all rights reserved

Do Toads Cause Warts?

OK, most you you are waiting for me to address the issue of warts. As a kid growing up in New England, it was common knowledge that handling a toad could cause you to get warts, especially if the toad decided to wet your hand as you held it. I say it was common knowledge because every kid knew it. It is completely false however. Warts are caused by a virus that is not zoonotic (passed between animals and humans). If you don't believe me, Kids Health backs it up. There is absolutely zero chance of catching warts by handling a toad.

Don't Lick a Toad!

American toads do, however, have a poison gland above the eye. This poison is designed to deter some predators. While this poison is generally not harmful through normal skin contact, care should be taken not to get it in your eyes (such as by rubbing your eyes after handling a toad) or to swallow it (I don't know, by licking a toad, I guess...).

A Common New England Night Caller

In most parts of New England, the American Toad is one of the most misidentified night callers. People with no experience or training often mistake its call for peeper frogs even though the two have very different voices and calls. If you are often out after dark in New England (outside of a city environment) you have probably heard the call of the American Toad. It is a long trilling sound. You can find a link to the audio of the American Toad call about halfway down the page here at Nature North who also informs me that the Genus Bufo has been officially changed to Anaxyrus, so instead of Bufo americanus, American Toads are now Anaxyrus americanus and Fowler's Toads are now Anaxyrus fowleri, but what's in a name. That which you call Anaxyrus is still covered in warts...

American toads don't have a specific habitat. They live pretty much everywhere in the eastern United States and Canada. They can be found in forests, river valleys, on mowed lawns, planted fields, and everywhere in between. Consequently, numbers of this  species is not in significant decline because they are not being displaced by habitat loss. If a forest is converted to suburban development, the American toad stays and continues to prosper. They are often seen in the daytime, but are actually nocturnal. If they can, they stay hidden in their burrows during the daytime.

American Toad Tadpoles:

American Toad tadpoles are small with a skinny tail and often seen in very densely populated permanent or semi-permanent pools or small ponds. Because of the small pools in which they are often found, they tend to be easy to catch and it is not uncommon for children to scoop up a few and bring them home to watch them slowly turn into toads (although most kids are expecting frogs from these little black tadpoles). They are generally OK with water conditions that would be suitable for a goldfish, and will even eat fish flakes, although natural algae and decaying vegetation is probably better for them. If decaying vegetation is put in the tank, then a charcoal filter is absolutely required.

Quick facts about Anaxyrus americanus:

Diet: Adult toads eat insects and worms of all sorts, especially beetles - like the Common Black Ground Beetle that seems to be so prevalent in the wooded area of my yard. As tadpoles, I've observed them eating algae from the sides of rocks in the shallow pools in which they hatch, it's a likely bet that they also eat decaying vegetation from the bottom of the pool. Because of the population densities I've observed, they most likely do not rely on zoo plankton which would be quickly stripped from the pool.

Life Cycle: American toads lay eggs in water in the spring which hatch in less than two weeks, sometimes considerably less. The tadpoles stay in the pools for roughly 30 days or a little longer as they become toads. They first grow tiny back legs and then front legs appear. The tail will slowly shorten and disappear until the toad is completely metamorphosed. Once that happens it will soon leave the water and begin life as a land-based toad.

Lifespan: Ohio History Central says the American toad's average lifespan is 5-10 years, but they have been known to live as long as 30 years.

When is it here? The American toad does not migrate and is here all year round.

Where do toads go in the winter? In the winter, American toads hibernate in a burrow in the ground. I didn't have any information on the depth of its burrow, but it seems very unlikely that this cold-blooded creature is getting below the freeze line which, here, can run a couple feet deep during a cold winter. That means that their tissues almost certainly contain some sort of antifreeze chemical that prevents them from freezing solid.

Species status: Prevalent, not threatened at all

Spreadwing Damselfly (Lestes spp) - Too skinny to be a dragon

Spread-winged Damselfly (Lestes spp.)
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011, all rights reserved

In early August, my yard is full of dragonflies and damselflies. The zip through the air like the little hunter-killer drones that they are, in search of their prey. When most of us see insects like the one pictured here whizzing about or perched on leaf, we think "dragonfly." However, those that are very thin bodied and have bulging eyes mounted off to the sides on smaller looking heads are most likely not dragonflies at all, but are instead part of the sub-order known as damselflies or Zygoptera.

Dragonflies tend to be more thick bodied, may have a noticeable flattening of the body near the tail end, have broader wings, and the eyes bulge less from the side of the head although the eyes of dragonflies may be a bit bigger than those of damselflies on close inspection. Entomologists can go into deeper detail and discuss the structure of the face, particular shapes and markings of the thorax, and the much larger jaws of the dragonfly, among other features, but for the most part, the one that looks like it would stand no chance in a fight with the other is the damselfly and the presumptive victor in such an imagined combat is the dragonfly. In fact, a few of the larger dragonflies will occasionally take damselflies as prey. If you want more detail on separating the sub-orders, there's a really good diagram here at the Liecester & Rutland Dragonfly Group website.

The insect pictured above, is clearly a spread-winged damselfly, spread-winged as opposed to narrow-winged because when it is at rest the fore and hind winds separate or spread out from each other. That gets us as far as the family Lestidae level of our taxonomy tree. From there there are two choices: Archilestes and Lestes for genus. Fortunately for amateurs like myself, there are only two species of Archilestes and neither of them lives in New Hampshire. That gets us quickly to the genus Lestes, of which there are between 15-17 species depending upon who you ask, says bugguide.net. Ten species of Lestes are known in New Hampshire according to the Dragonfly Survey Checklist at NH Fish & Game.

To definitively identify some of the spreadwing species, it is almost necessary to have the insect in hand for a very close inspection or catch it in sharp focus at just the right angles. We can, however, rule out some of the ten choices. So let's go through the list:

1. It is too late in the year to be a Southern Spreadwing which would not be expected after June. This one was photographed during the first week of August. It is not, therefore, Lestes australis.
2. The Spotted Spreadwing would be expected no earlier than August, but we're within that window by a few days. I cannot tell from the photos whether there are two brown spots on the lower sides of the thorax, if there were it would make a positive identification for Lestes congener. As it is, I don't see the spots at all, so I don't think it is a Spotted Spreadwing, but I can't definitively rule it out because the angles on the photos I have are not quite optimal for this. It could possibly be Lestes congener.
3. The Northern Spreadwing (Lestes disjunctus) is common in the area and in season. Appearance is close enough that it also can't be ruled out. This is actually my most likely candidate. It may very well be a Lestes disjunctus.
4. Its appearance does not readily match the Emerald Spreadwing (Lestes dryas). It is not an Emerald Spreadwing.
5. It looks nothing like the Amber-winged Spreadwing (Lestes eurinus). It is not an Amber-winged Spreadwing.
6. The Sweetflag Spreadwing (Lestes forcipatus) female has a distinctively shaped ovipositor (bulbous at the end of the tail) which is not present in the specimen I photographed and the coloration does not match the male of the species. It is not a Sweetflag Spreadwing.
7. The Elegant Spreadwing (Lestes inaequalis) is much longer in the body than other spreadwings, and while I don't have another species alongisde this one to compare or a tape measure in the photo for reference, I am fairly confident in ruling this species out as a match.
8. The Slender Spreadwing (Lestes rectangluaris) is a possible. If it is of this species, it would have to be a female and we'd expect to see a distinct gray bar across the shoulder. I don't see that present, but can't definitively rule this one out. It is (just) possibly a Lestes rectangularis.
9. It is not a rare to New Hampshire Lyre-tipped Spreadwing (Lestes unguiculatus). The appearance and coloration is not even close.
10. That leaves the Swamp Spreadwing (Lestes vigilax) as our final option. However, the Swamp Spreadwing is matellic-colored and that is enough to rule out this specimen.

In order of likelihood, then, our damselfly could be a Northern Spreadwing, a Spotted Spreadwing or a Slender Spreadwing. We can say that we have a Lestes spp., meaning we know it belongs to the genus Lestes, but we are not sure which species since we can't narrow it down to just one possibility.

Quickfacts about Lestes spp.
Range: There are Lestes throughout the United States, but specific species may be regional. I noted above the ten species of Lestes that are present in New Hampshire.
Diet: Damselflies, like dragonflies, are predators, eating other insects that it can catch out of midair while flying. Nymphs are also fierce predators eating aquatic bugs including mosquito larvae and anything else they can catch.
Lifecycle: Damselflies breed by laying eggs on plants that stick out of the water. Depending upon the species, the eggs may be laid in the water directly or above the waterline. In the latter case, the plant must die and fall into the water for the eggs to hatch. From the West Virginia Extension Service, we learn that damselfly and dragonfly nymphs go through approximately 12 instar stages over the winter and spring (Do you remember instars from our two-striped grasshopper discussion?) before it transforms into an adult damselfly the following summer. It does this without a pupal stage. Instead when the skin splits, it emerges in its metamophosed state. Once they've emerged from the water as adults, they live about six months. During breeding season they often return to the water, but may be found ranging quite far away at times - which would account for them in my yard.
Lifespan: Roughly 15-17 months in New Hampshire depending upon autumn temperatures and breeding season for the individual species.
Habitat: Generally lakes, swamps, rivers, and streams for breeding, but may wander away from these areas in search of feeding grounds as adults.
Of Interest: Despite their reputation, neither dragonflies nor damselflies can bite or sting human beings at all and can be handled without risk (to the person - the insect may be at substantial risk if not handled carefully).

Larva! Common Black Ground Beetle

Well, just to complete my records, it seems, the pit traps yielded another insect today. It looks dramatically different than the Common Black Ground Beetle that I captured earlier, but I believe it is the same species. I think it is the larval form. Although as I couldn't pinpoint the species of the adult beetle, I can't say whether this is the same species or not. I would be confident in saying that it is the same genus, however. It's actually fairly exciting to catch both forms in one day in the same trap.

Pterostichus Larva, captured by pit trap in the forest
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011, all rights reserved

It looks like the genus: pterostrichus. The identifying features are the overall body shape, 11 segments on the antenna, the cercus, and the shape of the head and eyes. The cercus or, I suppose the plural is cerci, in Latin, are visible at the tail end of the insect. They are the two thin appendages trailing out from the sides of the back of the body, as seen in the picture.

The rest of the information is the same as the adult Common Black Ground Beetle from the earlier entry, so I won't repeat it, except tot note that the larva, although diurnal, doe snot like the light at all and when a piece of leaf was placed in with it, it hastily crawled under it. Every time the leaf was moved, it scrambled back under as fast as it could.

I'll also mention that it was about 75 degrees out when I was observing this fellow, and it was quite fast. I'd say that it could easily overtake most other crawling insects upon which it dines. This is another insect that I am happy to release. It eats the grubs and caterpillars of many harmful insects (or of any insect at all) and does not bother garden flowers or vegetable plants at all.

Pit trap success - Common Black Ground Beetle -Pterostichus Genus

Beetle in insect pit trap
Photo by Brad Sylvester
copyright 2011, all rights reserved

On the first morning (August 4, 2011) after installing several very small pit traps in the forest floor in my backyard, I have met with success and captured a bug, a beetle to be more precise. It fell into the trap and appears unable to gain purchase on the smooth walls to crawl out.

The benefit of using these straight walled containers as opposed to undercut glass jars is that I can lift them straight up out of the hole without disturbing the hole. Then I can cap it, place a replacement container in the existing hole, and return to a more convenient observation area to figure out just what it is that I've caught.

Straight-walled pit trap containers slide in and out of
the hole easily for emptying and replacement.
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011, all rights reserved

This specimen is clearly of the Order Beetles or Coleoptera. How do I know they are beetles? Well, once again, I'm going to say there are exceptions to the rule, but most beetles have a specialized set of wings that act as wing-covers to protect the wings they use to fly when not in use. The wing covers are generally hard and chitinous and when folded back in non-flying position, they completely cover the softer hind wings. The wing-covers or specialized fore-wings usually form a very straight line right down the middle of the beetle's back where they meet. The exception to the rule is a few species that have only vestigial traces of wings left and these might be a little harder to identify as Coleoptera right off the bat.

Also, I didn't know this, but bugguide.net assures me that Coleoptera or beetles, for the most part, have exactly 11 segments in each antenna. Some of my photos of this specimen are just barely clear enough to make out that there are indeed exactly 11 antenna segments present.

So then, we have all manner of sub-orders to choose from: Scarab beetles, water scavenger beetles, whirligig beetles, ground beetles... Wait a second, This beetle was captured on the ground among leaf litter, let start with ground beetles and see if we can find a match. Almost instantly we find the Common Balck Ground Beetle photo in the Audubon insect field guide. This is an approximate identification as there are many species that fall into this genus (Pterostichus). 180 species of Pterostichus have been identified in North America according to bugguide.net.

As is my usual motus operandi, I photographed this insect from a variety of angles and then let it go. Planning to do the identification from photos alone. In this case, my photos just aren't clear enough in the areas they need to be to make a positive identification of the exact species. There are many that can be ruled out, but the best we can do is drop this one into the Pterostichus genus and leave the species unresolved.

Common Black Ground Beetle (Genus: Pterostichus)
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011, all rights reserved

I can also learn to keep the specimen until I make sure I have covered the identifying field marks either visually or in well-detailed photos.

Quick Facts about the Common Black Ground Beetle:
Diet: soft-bodied insects
Range: depends on the species, but Pterostichus can be found throughout North America
Habitat: varies a bit by specific species, but many are found in deciduous forest leaf litter and under rocks and logs. A few species can be found in planted fields (where anything that eats caterpillars is generally considered beneficial...)
Lifecycle: Common Black Ground Beetles lay eggs shallowly in the ground during the summer. They hatch into larvae in the same year and the larva hunkers down to wait out the winter when it gets cold. They will pupate and metamophosize into the adult beetle form from July to August depending upon region and species.
Lifespan: No information found, but there is also no mention of the adult beetle successfully overwintering (in New England) so it's likely these live from about July to at least the first hard freeze in November of the following year or roughly 15-16 months.
Activity: Bugguide.net says they are active in the daytime and thus are diurnal. This specimen fell into the trap between dusk and 9:00 am (which certainly allows daylight enough for them to be diurnal).

How to make a small pit trap for insects

This is all the equipment I'll need to install small
pit traps to catch insects.
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011, all rights reserved

It's easy to go outside and find a new bug or bird for this blgo at this point, but there are huge numbers of creatures that simply can't be spotted that way. One such group is the nocturnal creatures. Those that come out only at night, under the cover of darkness.

To find these creatures, I could go out at night and look for them. In the dark, I'd have pretty poor luck because my aeyes have not evolved to give me good night vision. While I might find some things if I knew exactly where to look for them, there woudl still be many more that I would miss.

To try to get a good look at some of these, I'm going to use various types of traps. Traps are placed where the creatures, in this case bugs, might be expected to travel during the night. The trap's purpose is to collect and hold the bugs until I can come and see them first thing in the morning. Bug traps can be very imple to very complex. Over time, I'll use many different kinds and I'll explain each one.

Today, I installed a simple pit trap for insects. Pit traps are generally non-specific. that means they don't attract a single species with the use of special bait or some other lure that won't pull in any non-target species. Pit traps catch whatever happens to come along and fall in. For a very small ground pit trap, like the one I'm using today, that will mostly mean insect, but it's possible that it could catch a small mouse, toad, frog, or even a small lizard. Whether it could hold each of them would depend on the animal's size.

For my traps I'm using small plastic containers that are about six inches deep, have smooth vertical walls, and an oval shaped opening that measures roughly one inch by two inches. Glass jars also work grea, especially if they have an undercut shape so that anything trying to crawl out from inside not only has to scale vertical surfaces, but has to actually crawl upside down to escape. I'm hoping the very smooth, low friction sides of these plastic containers, combined with the narrow cross section will keep most bugs inside.

The installed insect pit trap
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011, all rights reserved

To install the trap, I simple dig a hole and place the container inside so that the lip of the container is flush with the surface of the ground. I replace any ground cover that was there around the outside of the hole so that it seems just like any other area of the forest floor. I do not cover the hole.


I'll place several of these around the same area. Because they are small, they don't cover mcuh territory and adding several helps increase the odds that they will fall in the path of something during the night. Of course, they work all day long as well, diurnal creatures can fall in just as easily as nocturnal creatures so checking both in the mornign and at dusk helps me figure out what I've caught by determining when it was active and fell in.

You should check the weather when using pit traps. They can fill with rainwater and drown water is inside if the weather is bad. Not only is it unnecessary to kill the bugs, but draowning and waterbloating can sometimes make them more difficult to identify as it can distort the size and shape of the body. If the forecast calls for rain, cover your pit traps to keep water out of them.

Another hazard of these kinds of traps is that even after one bug is caught more can fall in. If you get bugs with an adversarial relationship, you might be left with pieces of dead bugs or only the survivor of the night's encounters - another undesired outcome, but one that's more difficult to prevent.

I use deep, narrow containers because it makes it more difficult for winged creatures to escape. many of them don't fly vertically or at a steep climbing rate, so they bump into the wall and fall back down before they gain enough height to escape. The same principle applies to jumpers.

I installed these traps today, August 3rd in a wooded section of the yard as you can see from the photo below. It's a very small clearing that has a number of ground plants in addition to leaf litter. The ground around the trap is dry and solid, though moist as you'd expect from a leaf-covered forest floor. If I were putting out many traps throughout the woods, I'd number each one and record the type of habitat in which it was placed. Weather condition, temperatures, the type of vegetation near the trap, and time of year would all be variables that might cause each trap to catch different species of insects - or nothing at all.

I'm planning to leave these traps out for an extended period of time checking twice a day to see what we get. Choose one of the "follow" options from the side panel to learn what I catch.