Last weekend, the Deans lab got the chance to go to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, which was mentioned earlier last week. It was an especially exciting trip for me, as I am starting my graduate journey with Odonata in a lab full of Hymenoptera researchers.
We hit up all kinds of aquatic habitats in the region, including cranberry bogs, winding rivers, and ponds. Dragonflies and damselflies abounded in each, albeit completely different species-niche partitioning for the win! The highlight of my collecting was realizing that I had caught the dragonhunter,Hagenius brevistylus Selys, 1854, a notoriously predatory clubtail dragonfly.
While walking around Pakim Pond, I saw a large yellow blur taking off from a bush, so I attempted to net it with one hand while holding something else in the other. Shockingly, I had caught my first clubtail ever! Jessica Ware identified the specimen, and I felt a real thrill from the chase of the dragonhunter.
Stay tuned for more dragonhunting adventures, as there are other collecting trips this summer!
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