Delightful dragons dazzle denizens of Huntington

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

Hundreds of dragons flew over Huntington Beach last week.

No, we’re not spending too much time in the Huntington Beach

Brewery. It’s dragonfly migration season. Lovers of the little

beasties refer to them affectionately as dragons, rather than the

longer and more proper name, dragonflies.

There are dragons and damsels in this group of insects, but no one

seems to be in distress, and St. George and his sword are nowhere in

sight.

We’re novices in the pursuit of what the aficionados call “odes.”

This term is an abbreviation for the order Odonata, which includes

dragonflies and damselflies. Dragons are strong fliers, while damsels

are not. Maybe that’s because dragonflies have back wings that are

broader than their front wings, while damselflies have front and back

wings of equal size.

Dragons are larger and more robust that the slimmer and more

delicate damsels. And finally, dragons have huge eyes that meet you

head-on, but the eyes of damsels are on the side of the head.

Those who are hooked on photographing and studying dragons and

damsels are called odonatists. Sounds kind of like someone who

straightens teeth or plays an oboe. We were surprised to learn that

the study of odes is so young that dragons and damsels didn’t even

have common names until 1996. But when they got common names, they

got doozies! In California, there are gliders and saddlebags,

skimmers and meadowhawks; there are whitetails and dashers, pondhawks

and emeralds; there are darners and baskettails, sanddragons and

clubtails. You can find ringtails and snaketails, cruisers and

bluets, plus spreadwings and forktails, rubyspots and jewelwings. And

don’t forget the dancers. There must have been at least a little bit

of alcohol or something involved in naming these brilliant jewels of

the insect world.

The dragons we saw last week may have been flame skimmers, which

are brilliant orange-red dragons with translucent gray wingtips.

Hundreds of them flew around lazily on an afternoon breeze a week

ago, hovering over Blackbird Pond at Shipley Nature Center. A whole

battalion helicoptered past during the course of an hour. Skimmers,

however, are not known to migrate, so we may have been seeing

wandering gliders or even red saddlebags. We’re still learning our

odes. The dragons seemed to be migrating from somewhere to somewhere,

but the study of these gorgeous creatures is so incomplete that no

one knows exactly where migratory dragonflies come from or where

they’re going.

Dragonflies are valuable predators. The adults live only a few

weeks, but during that time they eat mosquitoes, gnats and other

small insects that we’re not particularly fond of. Even if they

weren’t beautiful, that trait would be reason enough to like them.

Adult dragonflies lay their eggs in water. For some species, the

eggs hatch within weeks. For other species, the eggs are dormant

through the winter and hatch in spring.

The eggs hatch into creatures that look like they crawled out of a

B-grade sci-fi movie. The larval nymphs must have looked like dragons

to someone. Or maybe it was their voracious appetites. The nymphs are

nasty little predators that crawl around underwater eating everything

they can get their mouthparts on. Their lower lip shoots out and

hooks prey using a little barb on the end. We can be happy that we’re

not on their list of things that they like to eat. They prefer

mosquito larvae, tadpoles and small fish, and will even eat their own

siblings.

As they grow, the nymphs shed their outer cuticle by molting. They

may molt a dozen times over the course of a few months or years,

depending on the species. Dragonflies spend most of their lives

underwater in nymph form. Finally they go through a final molt, from

which they emerge as winged adults that take to the air, feeding on

small flying insects. Some species migrate, some stay in the same

pond where they began life.

In some species, male dragonflies stake out territories and defend

them, awaiting whatever female ventures onto their property. In

species that are more proactive, the males set off in search of

females. Once they meet, the happy couple mates in what is called a

wheel pattern. We don’t know enough about dragonfly anatomy to figure

out who is doing what to whom. Suffice it to say, it looks

complicated and uncomfortable, but it works for the dragonflies.

If you want to know more about the many species of dragons and

damsels that live in California, we suggest getting a copy of Kathy

Biggs’ booklet, “Common Dragonflies of California.” Or check out the

Web site www.sonic.net/ dragonfly. It’s really fun to try to get

pictures of dragonflies when they alight on a cattail or willow leaf.

But we have to warn you. The study of odes can be addictive.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].