The Nature Of Our Valley
| The Marvels of Dragonflies | |||
| By Bruce Lund Published July 29, 2009 Summer is the season for dragonflies throughout the Muddy River valley and these fascinating insects are out in force and in plain sight for the next few months. Wherever there is water, there will be Blue Dashers, Flame Skimmers, Spot-winged Gliders, Black Saddlebags, Blue-ringed damselflies, Widow Skimmers, and many others with equally romantic names. It is well worth taking some time |
 Widow Skimmer dragonflies can be found at the Overton Wildlife Management Area south of downtown Overton. Pictured here is the female. |
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| to watch and enjoy these flying jewels, and one of the best locations to find them is at the Overton Wildlife Management Area, especially around Honey Bee Pond or Wilson Pond. These open and shallow pools surrounded by lush stands of cattails, arrowweed shrubs, and willow trees make for ideal dragonfly habitat, and the wide trails around the ponds are level and easy to walk.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by so many kinds flying about at the same time, so I picked one that is easy to see and recognize called the Widow Skimmer (the rather dark name may refer to the tendency of the males to leave the females after mating, making them “widows” – at least that’s one possibility). It’s one of our larger dragonflies with a body about 2 inches long and wings almost 3 inches across and is quickly recognized by the large fan-shaped dark brown to black wing patches on all four wings (one other large dragonfly similar species at the ponds with dark wing patches is the Black saddlebags dragonfly, but it has black patches on the hind wings only, and the patches look like ragged ink blots, not fans). |
 Widow Skimmer dragonflies can be found at the Overton Wildlife Management Area south of downtown Overton. Pictured here is the male. |
At different locations around the ponds, Widow Skimmers number from a few individuals to scores with the males perching on vegetation or darting back and forth over the water, feeding on insects and chasing other males in their attempts to establish and hold small territories.
Until I started studying them, I had no idea that male and female dragonflies often look very different. The bodies of mature Widow Skimmer males are light blue with striking dark and white wings. In contrast, female Widow Skimmers have dark blue to almost black bodies with yellow stripes starting on their backs and forking down both sides. Their wings have dark patches like the males but the rest of the wings are clear and usually have small dark patches at their wing tips. |
| To watch Widow Skimmers and other dragonflies in flight is to observe the ultimate masters of the air. No bat, bird, butterfly, or the planes of man can fly like dragonflies. Larger dragonflies have been estimated to fly up to 35 mph and can turn in an instant at any speed. They can take off vertically or backwards, stop on a dime, hover in place for over a minute, and they spend most of the day in the air. You can see all this for yourself at the ponds.
So, while this summer dragonfly show is going on, try a walk in the relative cool of the morning along the trails around the Overton Wildlife Management Area ponds and check out the action. It is truly one of the marvels of the natural world right at our doorsteps. If you would like to receive a checklist of all the dragonflies and damselflies that have been found in Clark County, Click here. Bruce Lund is a retired biologist and a lifelong love of nature instilled by his grandparents and some remarkable teachers. He has lived with his wife, Flo, in Moapa since 1997. |
