DSA Update No. 4: Boreas
Ophiogomphus colubrinus (Boreal Snaketail) / © Bryan Pfeiffer
I’m north. How so? North enough for Boreal Snaketail (Ophiogomphus colubrinus). That’s him above. Yeah, I know, perhaps some of you aren’t getting excited about seeing a dragonfly “hanging” out like this. But for many of us here in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, this dragonfly, which likes rivers, weakens the knees and makes the heart pound. But if your knees are locked and your heart rate is normal, here are a few other critters we’ve seen in the guise of Boreas, the Greek God of the North Wind: Boreal Chickadee, Boreal Whiteface, and Boreal Bluet. I’m still thinking of others. Until then, here’s an orchid whose name I now recall thanks to the amazing Sue Cloutier: Small Round-leaved Orchid (Amerorchis rotundifolia).
I was on the chemquasabamticook stream just North of the Allagash in Maine this week and got very excited about watching damsel flies mate. I have no idea what kind if damsel flies they were, but they were a brilliant teal. A couple times the female went under the water while they were attached. We thought, to lay her eggs but she didn’t come up again. Is this normal?
dianne richardson
Hi Dianne,
It’s routine for some female damselflies to submerge to lay eggs. They get to escape more males trying for additional copulations, and they’re less vulnerable tok predators. Sometimes fish or amphibians might get them. But not too often. Overall, it’s a strategy that works for them!
Small round-leaved orchid
Amerorchis rotundifolia
http://www.nativeorchid.org/SmallRound.htm
a little beauty!