Sunday, January 24, 2010

Green-Striped Darner

Aeshna Verticalis, more commonly known as the green-striped darner is a large common dragonfly in north eastern North America. Their range stretches from Nova Scotia to North Carolina in the east and Manitoba to Iowa in the west.
The range of the green-striped darner over laps with the range of the Canada darner, which is found mostly in the northwest portion of North America, in the middle of the continent. Because of that we see both species here. This can be difficult since both of these two species look very similar. The best way to identify which species that you have, when not under a microscope, is to look at the notch on the front side stripe of the thorax. If the notch is shallow, as you can see in the top picture, then it is probably a green-striped. If the notch is deep then it is probably a Canada darner.
Like all darners the green-striped darner is a strong flier, often catching and eating its prey i flight. This makes it difficult to photograph darners. Fortunately they seen to land much more often in the fall. Usually when they land they have something to eat. These pictures where taken by the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge in the Minnesota Valley NWR at the beginning of October.

10 comments:

Victoria said...

Gorgeous shots..the dragonfly looks magical and ornamental..briliant!
kiki~

Anonymous said...

Your photos never cease to amaze and delight. The sheer delicacy of the wings and more... Delightful!

Kala said...

The last photo has amazing detail. Happy Macro Monday.

Birgitta said...

Wonderful photos!

jay said...

Beautiful shots, as always! Love the middle one - he's almost camouflaged on that plant.

Dan Huber said...

Just wonderful

dan

KaHolly said...

Great shots! You are right, they are so difficult to photograph! But are truly amazing. Thanks for the id tip! ~karen

Kim, USA said...

How did you get this close?? Great macro shots!!


MacroMonday:Pinecones

Three Rivers, Michigan said...

Dragonflies are almost as much fun to watch as birds. They are intelligent and active little predators, with all sorts of interesting behaviors - but they don't sing! Thanks for the info and beautiful shots.

Three Rivers Daily Photo

Self Sagacity said...

Gorgeous!