Dragonfly Identification Class

Eastern Amberwing















Well, I really enjoyed the Dragonfly class. I definitely feel a little overwhelmed. There are SO MANY dragonflies and damselflies. Many of them are very similar to one another with these small details distinguishing them.
As far as I'm concerned, I think the blue ones are the worst, because many dragonflies turn blue with age - they call it pruinescence- it is a waxy coating that develops with age.




I'm hoping to go back and make my own notebook from my notes in class and his power point presentation. Dr. Abbott did an excellent job of going over a large number of species pointing out the distinctive markings and coloration. As I sat in class listening and taking notes, part of my brain said, "Oh my . . . . You'll never remember all this, too many details, too many species . . . .EEEK!" And I love his website, Odonata Central. If you already know roughly which species, you can go to the Field Guide. There you can see a sample photo or a gallery of photos to compare your specimen or photo (I'll be taking photos.) If you don't know which species, in the main Photo Gallery are thumbnails of each species.

I have his book Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas. I will probably do my "first guess" from those photos. I am finding after making this first best guess, that it helps a lot to go to the information pages and read about the specific identifying markers. Then I go to the website and compare my photos with the photo gallery. It helps when I can find one that is perched similarly to the one in my photo.


There was another book that people were using on the field trip: Stokes Beginner's Guide to Dragonflies. It is smaller in size and has larger photos. While not as comprehensive as Dr. Abbott's book, it is easier to carry around. He is working on a field guilde, I will probably purchase that when it comes out.

The field trips have been especially helpful. When you walk through dragonfly habitat with someone who knows what they are looking for, you actually see more different species.


The damselflies are so tiny, they are hard to see. Having a group of people all looking helps everyone see more individual species. Plus they had nets and captured some. After capture he had clear bags for us to study the differences between species before releasing them. One word of caution, don't stand very close to him . . . .a couple of times there were some close misses as he was trying to capture some dragonflies in flight. I did not take many photos the first field trip, partly because there were so many of us, I did not think I was getting close enough to get usable shots, and I wanted to concentrate on learning. However, those first shots came out better than I expected. So I took more shots on the second field trip. While there were others who were documenting the name of each species we saw, I find it difficult to lug around the camera and binoculars, take the photos, and write at the same time. So I'm trusting to my memory, checking the photos in the books, and hoping that I'm identifying these photos correctly.

I took a few photos of the group clustered around examining one of the captured specimens. We were all eager to see all the details-color, size, markings,etc.








And Dr. Abbott was so good at the details of each one.









I've made a Dragonfly page on my website that has most of my dragonfly photos both from this class and from before.

Hummmm . . . .Should I get a butterfly net?