A New Dragon Shows Up For Monday

Some of you may recall the post from a few weeks ago about the dragonflies and damselflies landing on me at times when I am trying to photograph them. In that post I included a photo of a Calico Pennant(Celithemis elisa). We don't see too many of the Calico Pennants around the pond, but when we do they are always a treat.

This one is evidently a mature male. They are not very large compared to most of the other dragonflies around the pond, but they are easily recognized. The red color is striking on the body and wings. And check out the little heart-shaped markings along the top of the abdomen. Those are a primary marking identifying the species.Male dragonflies often tend to hang around breeding grounds waiting for females. Since we see the Calico infrequently I presume there are not a lot of them in the immediate vicinity.

From the time we researched and identified the male Calico over 6 weeks ago I have been looking for a female Calico. The photo's we saw on line were very striking. I figured if one showed up it would be easy to spot since they are marked much like the adult male, but in gold as opposed to the red.

Finally one showed up. Well, at least I think it is a female....


The problem is I found out that the immature males can also be golden in color and very similar to the females. Like many dragonflies, particularly males it seems, they change color as they mature. I'm not sure I know enough about the species to definitely say this is a female. I guess I will have to do some further research.

Although there was a mature male around I never did see them in close proximity to one another. I did note that this one did not generally approach the water whereas the males seem to prefer short twigs right at the water's edge to perch on. These golden ones stayed mostly in the short grass on the banks maybe 3-4 feet from the water.

I have seen both of them in the short grass around the pond also. You can tell by this photo that they are a bit difficult to spot in the grass, especially the yellow ones. (Go to the center of the photo and then down and to the right just a bit to find it.)

Immature male or female, it is still a beautiful little creature. Personally, I'm hoping it is a female of course, and that it will make a suitable 'Love Connection'. We could use a lot more of these around in the coming years.