Identificaciones de ericisley

Pacific Spiketail (Cordulegaster dorsalis)

June 10, 2019

General Grant Grove
Kings Canyon National Park
Wilsonia, Tulare County, California

Elevation 6,600+ feet: A beautiful dragonfly that held still for a long while and allowed us to get close and take our pics. There's a small stream that runs through the grove not far from where it was perched catching some rays before sunset.

Male Cordulegaster sarracenia

We stumbled on a few Sarracenia Spiketails on accident while trying to wait out for some Swamp Darners to perch.

I later caught this individual and took some shots in-hand.

One of the targets of our trip was this species and we were fortunate to find three today. These shots show a perched male. Two of the shots show @briangooding and @nancynorman photographing this species. This is a very rare and local species of far east Texas and western Louisiana

Very dark conditions under heavy forest canopy. Image 1 natural light. Image 2 same insect with flash. Image 3 John and Kendra Abbott extracting DNA sample from this dragonfly as part of Dr. Abbott's ongoing research into this species which was only described new to science in 2011 by Abbott and Hibbitts.

I am in western Louisiana with some members of DSA (Dragonfly Society of the Americas). One of our targets today was Sarracenia Spiketail which was described new to science in 2011 by J. Abbott and T. Hibbitts. I had been fortunate enough to work with Abbott on this species for several years, but it is a species that is not very well known. Today a number of folks got to see the species. This is a female.

John Abbott, Kendra Abbott, Ken Tennessen, Laura Clark, and I were doing some investigative research into the life history of this newly described dragonfly (described new to science by Abbott and Hibbitts in 2011).
http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2011/f/z02899p068f.pdf
A total of 4 (3 males and one female) were netted, color marked, and released for later recognition. Image 1 shows a perched male before it was caught. Image 2 a male in hand. Images 3 and 4 show a male an hour or so after it had been color marked and released.