Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope the holiday season is a magical time full of happiness and laughter. I always love the holidays especially as it gives me an excuse to do some cooking and baking. This time of year is always an excuse to make a nice loaf of multigrain bread–it’s my big treat because we are on a low carb diet (like everyone else, it seems) so I only bake bread a few times a year.

As it turns out, this is also when I finally decided to write up my observations from this last summer on Furtive Forktails, Ischnura prognata, after much encouragement from friends and family. Writing an article about Ischnura prognata isn’t something I would normally feel qualified to do, especially since all of my observations are essentially anecdotal, i.e. I was the only observer and my notes are just one summer’s worth of information, but perhaps they have some merit.

If I’m extremely lucky and my observations have any merit at all, I’m hoping that they might be included as an article in the ARGIA, the newsletter of THE DRAGONFLY SOCIETY OF THE AMERICAS (DSA) That would be a huge honor and a big deal for me. I’m still having friends review what I’ve written to try to catch any errors and make suggestions on improvements, but I hope to submit it early in 2023. If it does get published, I’ll be sure to yack about it here. If nothing more is ever said about it, well, that means it was just a dream that was never fulfilled.

One of the things I noticed, however, while writing the article and checking other sources is that, well, there are conflicting observations. One distinguished source said that Ischnura prognata is always found near water. Hmmm. That just wasn’t the case here this last summer. Instead, they seems to lurk in areas that were close to saturated soil (i.e. mud and muck) or very shallow seeps. They were never in any vegetation on the banks of streams that were more than a few centimeters deep and in fact, I never found them in any vegetation near actual water. They were always in vegetation a few meters away from any water and preferably in vegetation growing in mucky/muddy areas several meters away from streams.

There were plenty of areas with vegetation near shallow streams but I never found any Ischnura prognata in those patches of vegetation. They also preferred vegetation with wider leaves such as Lizard’s Tail instead of the thin blades of various sedges and grasses growing nearby. That is, until the lizard’s Tail had finished doing its thing and had withered, just leaving stalks. At that point, which was in August, the Ischnura prognata finally moved to the sedges and grasses, but again, preferred to be several meters from water–they really liked seeps and muddy areas.

One theory might be that because we are in drought conditions (and have been for the last two years) and the streams are much reduced in the swamp, that perhaps this year the Ischnura prognata simply made use of areas that in previous years had been under water but were now simply mud flats. However, that doesn’t explain why they did not make use of areas covered with vegetation nearer to the streams or at least along the banks of the streams rather than clumps of identical vegetation growing in mud flats.

So…after looking at all of that, my personal theory is that populations of Ischnura prognata make use of local conditions. Some populations may prefer areas in/near shallow streams, while other populations like those I observed, may prefer mud flats. They also made use of different types of vegetation at different times of the year. When broader-leafed plants were green and lush, they preferred those (this was mid-summer). As those plants withered, they moved to the green sedges and grasses. In all cases, they were only to be found in lush green vegetation. They seemed to avoid any brown or withered vegetation, although they did rest on twigs and dead leaves near clumps of green vegetation.

In addition to making use of different vegetation types depending upon what was available, they also changed their hunting techniques based upon local conditions. When they could fly under the broad leaves of the Lizard’s Tail, they simply captured prey that was also under the broad leaves. But when those plants withered, the Ischnura prognata changed techniques. They rested on the upper side of the blades of grass or sedge but their prey was largely on the underside of those blades. So, the Ischnura prognata began hovering over blades and gently tapping them, apparently to dislodge any prey hiding on the underside. They adapted their hunting techniques based upon conditions.

Of course, that’s just anecdotal because it’s just my personal experience based upon watching these fascinating damselflies during the period of July to December, but it was interesting to me nonetheless. And perhaps it will be interesting enough to be published in the Argia. We will see.

I could ramble on and on about Ischnura prognata and other odonates I observed this summer but I need to stop at some point.

Again, I wish everyone a very happy holiday season and best wishes for the new year ahead!