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Photo#123641
Slaty skimmer juvenile female (DDF252) - Libellula incesta - female

Slaty skimmer juvenile female (DDF252) - Libellula incesta - Female
Great Falls NP, Fairfax County, Virginia, USA
June 30, 2007
Size: medium

Images of this individual: tag all
Slaty skimmer juvenile female (DDF251) - Libellula incesta Slaty skimmer juvenile female (DDF252) - Libellula incesta - female Slaty skimmer juvenile female head (DDF252) - Libellula incesta

Moved
Moved from Libellula.

Moved
Moved from Dragonflies.

Sorry....
Sorry Fred. We got carried away on the clubtails. Odes are so interesting and IDing them is a major challenge sometimes.

 
Quite all right
Thanks for all your efforts. Put up a closeup of head area, but don't have any from directly in front. For what it's worth, I have seen a number of male slaty skimmers near where this was found, but haven't seen any bar-winged.

Female Bar-winged Skimmer more likely
This could also be a female Bar-winged Skimmer (Libellula axilena). The brown streaks along the leading edge of the forewings are only sometimes present in Slaty Skimmer. I'm not sure that this bug is identifiable beyond young female Slaty/Bar-winged Skimmer.

 
Not convinced, :)
I agree the Bar-winged has more prominent bars on the leading edge of the forewings but some Slatys do also. The one mark that strikes me most is the flange on S8 which shows on the lateral view. I don't remember this on a Bar-winged. Also, shouldn't the face of the Bar-winged be dark? You may be right Nick, not positively IDable out of hand.

 
The flange is present to a va
The flange is present to a varying degree on most (if not all) females in Libellula, including Bar-winged. I'm not sure about the facial color on this bug b/c we need a head-on view to be sure that those aren't just light lateral borders on a dark center, which Bar-winged can show. Definitely a tough one!

 
agree
a tough call, Nick. How are you with clubtails? I have pix of Ashy/Dusky that I can't positively ID.

 
Hehe
Is it on the site? I'll take a look for it under Gomphidae...I can't promise anything with those two, though! :-)

 
my site
http://www.pbase.com/rcm1840/clubtailsgenusgomphus

Bottom of this page. I have them labeled as Ashy male and Ashy Female but I am not sure.

 
Ashy
They're definitely not Dusky Clubtails, based on the amount of pale dorsally on S9 and the shape of the cerci. I almost want to call them dull Lancet Clubtails, but I guess they must be Ashy.

 
clubtails
I get oodles of Lancets here and I am almost sure they are not Lancets. I lean towards Ashy too. The two are very similar and again with photos, it is difficult to tell for sure. I appreciate you taking a look at them. I am going to stay with Ashy.

Thanks.

I believe....
it is a Female Slaty Skimmer (Libellula incesta) The flange on S8, dark wing tips point to Slaty. The Spangled has white stigmas on the wings.

 
Thanks
Following your suggestion, I looked at other photos of the female slaty skimmer and it matches closely with the juvenile female shots. Thanks again.

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