Delightful dragons dazzle denizens of Huntington
VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY
Hundreds of dragons flew over Huntington Beach last week.
No, we’re not spending too much time in the Huntington Beach
Brewery. It’s dragonfly migration season. Lovers of the little
beasties refer to them affectionately as dragons, rather than the
longer and more proper name, dragonflies.
There are dragons and damsels in this group of insects, but no one
seems to be in distress, and St. George and his sword are nowhere in
sight.
We’re novices in the pursuit of what the aficionados call “odes.”
This term is an abbreviation for the order Odonata, which includes
dragonflies and damselflies. Dragons are strong fliers, while damsels
are not. Maybe that’s because dragonflies have back wings that are
broader than their front wings, while damselflies have front and back
wings of equal size.
Dragons are larger and more robust that the slimmer and more
delicate damsels. And finally, dragons have huge eyes that meet you
head-on, but the eyes of damsels are on the side of the head.
Those who are hooked on photographing and studying dragons and
damsels are called odonatists. Sounds kind of like someone who
straightens teeth or plays an oboe. We were surprised to learn that
the study of odes is so young that dragons and damsels didn’t even
have common names until 1996. But when they got common names, they
got doozies! In California, there are gliders and saddlebags,
skimmers and meadowhawks; there are whitetails and dashers, pondhawks
and emeralds; there are darners and baskettails, sanddragons and
clubtails. You can find ringtails and snaketails, cruisers and
bluets, plus spreadwings and forktails, rubyspots and jewelwings. And
don’t forget the dancers. There must have been at least a little bit
of alcohol or something involved in naming these brilliant jewels of
the insect world.
The dragons we saw last week may have been flame skimmers, which
are brilliant orange-red dragons with translucent gray wingtips.
Hundreds of them flew around lazily on an afternoon breeze a week
ago, hovering over Blackbird Pond at Shipley Nature Center. A whole
battalion helicoptered past during the course of an hour. Skimmers,
however, are not known to migrate, so we may have been seeing
wandering gliders or even red saddlebags. We’re still learning our
odes. The dragons seemed to be migrating from somewhere to somewhere,
but the study of these gorgeous creatures is so incomplete that no
one knows exactly where migratory dragonflies come from or where
they’re going.
Dragonflies are valuable predators. The adults live only a few
weeks, but during that time they eat mosquitoes, gnats and other
small insects that we’re not particularly fond of. Even if they
weren’t beautiful, that trait would be reason enough to like them.
Adult dragonflies lay their eggs in water. For some species, the
eggs hatch within weeks. For other species, the eggs are dormant
through the winter and hatch in spring.
The eggs hatch into creatures that look like they crawled out of a
B-grade sci-fi movie. The larval nymphs must have looked like dragons
to someone. Or maybe it was their voracious appetites. The nymphs are
nasty little predators that crawl around underwater eating everything
they can get their mouthparts on. Their lower lip shoots out and
hooks prey using a little barb on the end. We can be happy that we’re
not on their list of things that they like to eat. They prefer
mosquito larvae, tadpoles and small fish, and will even eat their own
siblings.
As they grow, the nymphs shed their outer cuticle by molting. They
may molt a dozen times over the course of a few months or years,
depending on the species. Dragonflies spend most of their lives
underwater in nymph form. Finally they go through a final molt, from
which they emerge as winged adults that take to the air, feeding on
small flying insects. Some species migrate, some stay in the same
pond where they began life.
In some species, male dragonflies stake out territories and defend
them, awaiting whatever female ventures onto their property. In
species that are more proactive, the males set off in search of
females. Once they meet, the happy couple mates in what is called a
wheel pattern. We don’t know enough about dragonfly anatomy to figure
out who is doing what to whom. Suffice it to say, it looks
complicated and uncomfortable, but it works for the dragonflies.
If you want to know more about the many species of dragons and
damsels that live in California, we suggest getting a copy of Kathy
Biggs’ booklet, “Common Dragonflies of California.” Or check out the
Web site www.sonic.net/ dragonfly. It’s really fun to try to get
pictures of dragonflies when they alight on a cattail or willow leaf.
But we have to warn you. The study of odes can be addictive.
* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and
environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com.
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