DSA Update No. 5: Carnage & Closure

A Gomphus fraternus (Midland Clubtail) eats a Baskettail (Epitheca sp.) / © Bryan Pfeiffer

HERE’S A PARTING SHOT from the 2014 Dragonfly Society of the America’s annual meeting in Wisconsin: a Gomphus fraternus (Midland Clubtail) eating an Epitheca (baskettail) species, most likely E. spinigera, Spiny Baskettail, along the Wisconsin River near Woodruff. Nothing odd here, just dragonflies being dragonflies: flying around, having sex, and killing things, including one another.

We wrapped up our meeting with a bonus excursion to peatlands and rivers in northeastern Wisconsin. To our hosts for this gathering – Ken Tennessen, Bob Dubois, Denny Johnson, Bill Smith, Ryan Chrouser and others I’m sorry to have omitted – I offer the most sincere gratitude. I’ll post a final species list once Bob compiles it. Read other DSA meeting updates here.

Next for me is the 2014 Northeast regional meeting of the DSA in Binghamton, NY. On my way there I stopped at a spectacular bog in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where I encountered two prized northern butterflies: Boloria eunomia (Bog Fritillary), which I have sought (unsuccessfully) in Vermont for more than a decade, and Boloria frigga (Frigga Fritillary). Here’s the Bog Frit, evidence that in butterflies beauty lies on both sides of the wings.

More on that bog, which featured more deer flies than I’ve ever encountered in one place, later. Onward!

Bog Fritillary (Boloria eunomia) / © Bryan Pfeiffer

Bog Fritillary (Boloria eunomia) / © Bryan Pfeiffer