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Photo#1743003
Lanthus parvulus (?), nymph - Lanthus
Copyright © 2019 Joshua Stuart Rose

Lanthus parvulus (?), nymph - Lanthus
Amethyst Brook Conservation Area, Amherst, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, USA
August 26, 2016
My son occasionally enjoys scooping up water and sediment from the brook behind our home and searching through them with our little magnifying scope for critters. This was one of his best finds. There were actually two of them in the sample, I believe both of the same species, but the larger one at the smaller before I could get a photo of it... I figured until recently that this was a nymph of an Eastern Least Clubtail (Stylogomphus albistylus), but a couple of days ago I helped someone on FaceBook (in the NE Odonates discussion group) identify a nymph of that species, and while doing so realized that this was actually a Lanthus, a species of which I've never seen an adult in the state! I've been advised by our local Mass Audubon naturalist that the species is L. parvulus, but haven't determined for myself how to tell the two Lanthus species apart....

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Lanthus parvulus (?), nymph - Lanthus Lanthus parvulus (?), nymph - Lanthus Lanthus parvulus (?), nymph - Lanthus
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Contributed by Joshua Stuart Rose on 22 October, 2019 - 10:50pm
Last updated 20 June, 2020 - 2:24pm

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Moved
Moved from Northern Pygmy Clubtail after some reading up on the two Lanthus species and discussion with Nick Block. The friend who told me that this was parvulus never actually said what made him think so, and that species is very rare in MA, mostly restricted to high altitudes. The location where my son caught this nymph is more appropriate habitat for parvulus, but at a low altitude and part of the state far more appropriate for vernalis. So, until I find an adult around here, am left with uncertainty whether this was a parvulus whose mother wandered a ways downhill before ovipositing, or a vernalis who got washed out of a tributary and into the main stem of the brook....
… Joshua Stuart Rose, 20 June, 2020 - 2:24pm login or register to post comments

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