Order · Odonata

Odonata

Dragonflies and damselflies

Odonata are aerial predators whose larvae are aquatic. Both suborders are here: damselflies (Zygoptera), slender and weak on the wing, which fold their wings back along the body at rest; and dragonflies (Anisoptera), heavier and far stronger fliers, which hold theirs spread flat. The names record a wing character — *zygo-ptera*, yoked wings, for the matched fore and hind wings of a damselfly; *aniso-ptera*, unequal wings, for the broader-based hind wing of a dragonfly.

Because the larvae develop in water and the adults stay near it, an odonate assemblage reports on the condition of a particular stretch of stream rather than on the landscape at large. That is what makes the group worth counting in a vereda whose watercourses are its most-used habitat.

Specimens collected here are photographed against a plain card, dorsal habitus with a separate close-up of the head; later material is photographed alive in the field. Throughout, the animal is set head to the left wherever it has a readable axis.