Racket-Tailed Emerald - Dorocordulia liberaAs promised, another beautiful insect from the Muskoka co

Racket-Tailed Emerald - Dorocordulia liberaAs promised, another beautiful insect from the Muskoka cottage scene by the lake. This one has wonderful shades of metallic green on its thorax plates which make it a sight to behold if you find one. You may think that those vibrant colors are what give this insect its name, and while there is a bit of truth to that, the real answer is much more interesting, and I truly wish these pictures could showcase what I’m about to describe. Belonging to the family Corduliidae or Emerald Dragonflies, this new family is a first for the blog, joining the quick Skimmers (Libellulidae) and the large Darners (Aeschnidae) (and the one Clubtail also found in cottage country). The Emerald family received their name from the vibrant green eyes that most species tend to display when they fully mature. You’ll need to look at other pictures for reference, but I promise you, these eyes are saturated with a lush light-green. This specie can have that eye color too, but sadly not this individual, which leads me to deduce that this individual may be an “immature” adult, needing a little more time in the sun. While other Dragonflies have differing male and female characteristics, both males and females can have green eyes, at least from what I’ve read and seen. This in mind, there’s a much easier way to tell male and female Emeralds apart: look to the tips of their abdomens! No matter what eyes they have, the males will have three prominent claspers and females have an elongated plate and/or diminished claspers on the abdomen tip. The pictures here don’t really show the best view of the abdomen, but I see no claspers. With this information in mind, I’ll know what to look for next time. Continuing on, as the name suggests, the widened tail tip has given this beautiful creature its name, “racket tail”. Keep an eye out for this feature if a green-eyed Dragonfly zooms by you. Also, while the top of the body shows greens of various intensities, the undersides of this Dragonfly are striped with yellow. She is truly stunning and will likely go on to birth several new Dragonflies that will call the lake in front of the cottage home in their young naiad forms. After spending their days hunting prey in the water, they too will emerge will emerald coloration to hunt the many flying insects of the cottage environment. Midges and Mosquitos provide an all you can catch buffet for them, and there are larger insects to try and catch such as the elusive Alderfly.Pictures were taken on May 28, 2022 in Muskoka with a Google Pixel 4. -- source link

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