Friday, June 21, 2013

Damsels, In Distress and Otherwise

We decide to make a quick trip to Canonsburg PA to see the kids, going up Wednesday night, and coming home today, Friday.  While we were in Canonsburg, we stopped at the local park, beside a little stream.  I tried hunting for butterflies, but found these instead, flitting over the stream, and perching on the nearby vegetation.
At first, when I saw them flying, I mistook them for some kind of butterfly, but I soon found out they were something else; damselflies.  As near as I can tell they are Ebony Jewelwings, a very appropriate name.  Their wings a very dark, almost, but not quite opaque, and their bodies, and the leading edge of their wings is an exquisite electric blue-green.
Notice how you can barely see through lower wing on the right side.
 I soon noticed that there were really two forms, one a much duller color, with white spots at the ends of much more transparent (but still dark) wing tips.
As near as I can tell the second type is the female, and this picture would tend to confirm that; the darker one ferilizing the lighter one.
And this lighter one caught in the act of laying her eggs in the water.









A brief video the shows them flitting over the stream.



Another couple of damsels, enjoying the shaded and the breeze.  It was a rough trip for Skye, lots of time stuck in the back of the van; we couldn't even get a room at a local motel that allowed dogs, so she had to spend two nights in the van.
She took it like the good trooper she really is, though.

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